


The Heat

by ClairefromAyr



Series: The Mated Bond Chronicles [5]
Category: The Vampire Diaries - L. J. Smith
Genre: Anal Sex, Blood Drinking, M/M, Mating Bond, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Post Mpreg, Sibling Incest, Werewolf Mates, vampcest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2016-10-28
Packaged: 2018-03-25 18:20:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 59
Words: 278,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3820237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClairefromAyr/pseuds/ClairefromAyr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Continuation of the Mated Bond chronicles.  Stefan and Damon and their baby begin their new life, but is it any easier than what they've already faced and can they do it without their friends from Mystic Falls?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Stefan stirred as he heard Vida moan unhappily. He grunted and turned onto his side. She moaned again and kicked her arms and legs, desperately wanting to be attended. He grunted again and sighed.

Damon, can you get the baby?

He channelled and relaxed once more. She continued to fuss and began to gurn and he opened his eyes to see an empty side of the bed next to him. He sat up and rubbed his face disorientated as usual. They'd been staying in their temporary home in the woods with the wolves for over a week now and every morning had Stefan awoken confused as to their whereabouts.

Vida began to cry and he got out of bed and cross over to Damon's side, lifting her up and out of the bassinet that she was quickly out-growing. As soon as he had her in his arms and patting her back she calmed. She lay her head on his shoulder, drooling onto his vest.

"That's my angel." He mumbled and kissed her head as he bounced her. "Where'd daddy disappear to huh?"

He left the bedroom and went into the lounge-like den. Still no sign of Damon. He yawned and lay lady impossible down on her play mat, spinning some of the mobile hanging above it for her, to keep her entertained while he started a fire in the hearth. She squealed in delight and kicked her legs as the small rocket ships on the mobile danced around for her. He chuckled, watching her stare up in wonder.

It wasn't so bad being here. When they'd first arrived at the camp, the wolves had offered them a tent to stay in – why this pack were obsessed with living like hobo's he couldn't understand but Damon wasn't one for roughing it and had downright scoffed. He smiled to himself at that memory. Damon with all of his pricey shirts and expensive jeans, sleeping on the ground? No. Over his mostly dead body.

Nisha had been welcoming and excited that they'd decided to stay with them for a while and the rest of the pack – although some of the men nervous at their connection to Klaus, appreciated that they wanted to understand more about their wolf side. It demonstrated that he and Damon acknowledged and respected the fact that being a wolf was a lot more than changing with the moon.

Thankfully one of the wolves' relatives owned some land and it housed an old boy scout's camp, complete with wooden lodges. They hadn't been used for years but they all made quick work of restoring them to make their stay more comfortable.

Vida gurgled and squealed and Stefan blinked out of his thoughts and turned to look at her. She was looking towards him and smiling.

"What you up to huh?" He cooed and she smiled wider and stuck her fingers into her mouth. "I know that expression."

He crawled over to her and she giggled.

"What did you break?" He raised an eyebrow as he chuckled and she kicked her legs excitedly, her eyes wide and innocent.

He looked at the mobile, studying it. This was her new thing. She was getting stronger. She'd started to pull at things now, his hair, Damon's collar and items she wanted to store away. It was bizarre but they kept finding things that didn't belong to her. It was like she was foraging.

"What did you do?" He cooed and she gave a cough. "Did you eat something?" He frowned a little concerned and lifted her up as she coughed again.

He tried to look into her mouth but she squirmed unhappily.

"Let me see." He put his finger in her mouth and she gurned. "Jesus Vida."

He looked at the mobile again and noticed a small plastic star was missing and he placed her to his shoulder again and rubbed her back.

"You're lucky you're not human lady." He sighed and she continued to cough. "Come on."

He stood up and went outside to look out for Damon. The other wolves always seemed to be doing something, building things in the camp. It was nice actually, to know that there was always someone around. Nisha came up to their porch cooing at Vida and he sighed in relief.

"She swallowed something. Plastic I think." He said and Nisha gave a small frown. "What should I do?"

"She seems ok though." Nisha took her from him and checked her. "It'll pass through her system if it's not too big."

"She doesn't pass anything though. Same as us." He folded his arms and Nisha blinked at him surprised.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Then we better get it out. Ok angel?" She whispered and Vida coughed.

They moved inside and went back into the bedroom to lie Vida on her changing mat. She complained and tried to move onto her side and Nisha quickly spun her back onto her back as she undressed her. Vida kicked and began to cry as Stefan stood and tried to soothe her.

"What's going on?" Damon entered the room, dirty and sweaty and Stefan frowned at him in surprise before motioning him forward.

"She swallowed some plastic. Damn mobile. We need to get her something higher that she can't grab."

"She what?!" Damon panicked and Nisha gave a small chuckle.

"Relax daddies, babies put things in their mouths, but you do have to keep more of an eye on her now. Before you know it she'll be walking and pulling at everything."

Damon paled in worry.

"How do we get it out?" Stefan asked and she sat Vida up and onto her forearm as she used her fingers to push upwards on her breastbone.

Vida began to wail and Nisha bit her lip in concentration as she turned her over and patted Vida's back.

"Why isn't it working?" Damon pulled at his hair as Vida continued to cry, her face red.

Nisha gave her a sharp hit on her back, which had Damon flinching to move and take Vida from her, when Vida coughed and vomited. Stefan exhaled in relief when he saw the little pink plastic star sitting on the changing mat. Vida on the other hand, wasn't so relieved. She screamed and wailed at the trauma and Nisha lifted a bib from the drawer and cleaned her face.

Damon took her from her and left the room, whispering to her.

"Thanks." Stefan squeezed Nisha's arm and she cleaned her hands with a baby wipe.

"She's doing things that babies twice her age do Stefan. You're not going to be able to take your eyes off of her anymore."

He nodded, annoyed with himself.

"It's every first time parent's nightmare but you'll adapt." She smiled. "Time to baby proof I think."

"Yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Is it normal to have such quick development? I mean, she's growing a little faster but she seems to be more switched on."

"In cubs you mean?"

"Yeah."

"Not really. It must be her vampire aspects. Cubs grow at a normal human rate of development, even when conceived in the main heat."

"Right." He nodded to himself.

"Speaking of which, are you ready for today?"

"I think so." He swallowed nervously.

"Don't worry. You can stop at any time, remember that."

"I'm not sure how Damon will do." He confessed.

"I can hear you!" Damon chimed sarcastically from the other room and Stefan blushed.

"Control takes time and a lot of practise." She chuckled and rubbed his arm. "Don't worry and don't fight what's natural. If you want to have intercourse, then do. "

"I want us to be able to abstain if we have to." He shook his head. "For Vida."

"We are here Stefan. She'll be fine."

"I know but, when we leave you won't be there to feed her and look after her if I'm…if we're….I need to be able to take care of her through a heat too." He struggled and she gave a sigh and nodded.

"Just, don't beat yourself up too much. A heat is for the purpose of connecting physically."

"You think we can't do it?" He raised an eyebrow and she shrugged.

"Sometimes you can't control everything is all I'm saying. Don't punish yourselves needlessly. We will start slow today with some meditation and drinking of the tea."

"No touching?"

"If you want to, yes. We can do some practise with your trigger." She nodded and he gave a tight smile.

It was so embarrassing talking about such intimate matters but she was the only one who could help him. She gave him a wink and took her leave.

He exhaled and went through to the lounge. Damon was talking softly to Vida as she sniffled against his chest and played with his fingers. He lay his lips against her forehead and rocked them both on the rocking chair.

"She ok?" Stefan asked and Damon gave a nod.

Guilt.

Stefan channelled as he looked at her little tear stained face.

It's not your fault little blood machine. I should have been here.

"You can't be here all the time and I should have been watching her." Stefan sat down defeated and looking at her play mat.

"She's a Salvatore Stefan, she's made of steel, plus she learning. Now, she knows not to swallow pink stars. Don't you princess?" He tilted her back into the crook of his arm and she looked up at him with a petted lip. "Don't put plastic in your mouth, only yummy necks."

Stefan watched as Damon rocked her comfortingly.

"You're filthy. What've you been doing?"

"We're not spending your heat in a tent Stefan." Damon looked at him pointedly. "I'm building something else."

"What?" Stefan frowned in surprise.

"If we can't control ourselves then I want Vida here in her own bed, surrounded by things she recognises here, not lying in a bassinet beside us while we roll around on the ground."

Stefan clenched his jaw at the horror of that thought.

"No." He agreed. "You're building something?"

"Just a small place, just for us when you're ready."

Stefan smiled warmly.

Love.

Love.

Damon smiled back and Vida gurned as her eyes changed in hunger.

I'm covered in mud and coal.

Damon stood up and handed her to Stefan to feed, while he went to shower and Stefan smiled down at her. She clutched at his vest with her hands and pulled, looking up at him. She lay her face against his chest and licked there through the fabric.

"Hey!" He chuckled. "Where are you going?"

She continued to lick and try to suckle there and he tensed for a bite. She was right over his nipple and it'd hurt like hell if she bit there. He frowned as she latched her lips around it over the fabric.

"Hey, come on." He cooed and detached her, lifting her up to his neck and she bit down and began to drink.

He rubbed the wet patch on his chest, feeling his nipple itch underneath. She never drank from there. She had fed from his pec muscle when she'd first been born, probably due to confusion. After all, that's what nipples were for, for giving milk to a baby. Of course he had none to give. He patted her gently, careful not to pat too hard, given the fact that she'd just been given the Heimlich manoeuvre by Nisha. She drank for a lot longer than normal and he sighed relaxed. He was glad. She'd sensed all of the change and emotions lately and she hadn't been feeding as well as normal.

He closed his eyes as she continued, holding onto a strand of his hair with one of her fists. He must have dosed off for a few minutes as he awoke with a start when Damon walked back through, fully dressed and smelling glorious. He sat up a little and realised that Vida was dosing also, with her face against his neck.

"You ok?" Damon smirked and he nodded.

"Yeah."

"You ready?"

"Yeah." He stood up and lay Vida into the bassinet Damon lay at his feet.

She slept on as they tucked her in.

"You want to have a shower first?" Damon rubbed their noses together.

"Do I smell bad?" Stefan chuckled and kissed him smiling.

"Never. It just might make it harder not to jump you when you smell as Stefan-y." Damon mumbled as he kissed his throat.

"That's the point though. We have to be able not to jump each other." Stefan sighed at Damon's soft touches.

"Hmmmn." Damon scented his neck and inhaled the roses.

"Come on." Stefan urged and they broke apart and lifted the bassinet.

Today Constance was looking after Vida while they had their tantric session with Nisha. Damon was a little stiff when handing Vida over. He still didn't like Constance very much owing to her Toby-stealing behaviour. Still, she was heavily pregnant and emitting comforting hormones to Vida. Vida felt safe around her and had bonded.

They walked to Nisha's lodge and tapped on the door. She opened it welcoming them in. The smell of incense hit their nostrils immediately but it was pleasant, so they found themselves breathing the scent in deeply.

"The incense will help you focus when you're meditating." Nisha sat and ushered them into a small room where she'd lain rugs and candles around.

Damon gulped when he saw how romantic the room had been made up. It felt strange to be expected to be open about sex with a stranger here. Stefan felt Damon's discomfort and squeezed his hand.

"What do we do?" Stefan asked and she smiled and gestured for them to sit down.

"I'll bring some tea."

"Tea?" Damon snorted and Stefan hit his arm.

"The tea to stop me from getting pregnant." Stefan huffed at him and Damon nodded grumpily. "I know you don't see the point in this but I want to try it."

"Whatever you want Stefan." Damon gave a weak smile and they sat down together in silence.

Nisha came back and handed them each a cup. Damon frowned in confusion as to why he was having to drink this.

"It's good for you to share everything. It'll help keep you connected throughout this experience. After all, both of you are involved in preventing another baby." She advised and Damon nodded.

They both drank a sip and swallowed hard. The taste wasn't great but just about palatable.

"Now, I want you to relax, close your eyes and breathe." She instructed. "You can lie down if you want to."

And so it began. Despite Damon's discomfort with the whole scenario, he found himself lying down and relaxing completely to the gentle sound of her voice guiding them into meditation. He'd never meditated before and was surprised at how rejuvenated he was feeling.

"Now create a place in your mind where you can return to your human brain, your higher brain. This is the place you will come when you feel the heat trying to fog your minds." She said gently.

Damon frowned a little, trying to picture somewhere. It was difficult when you weren't sure what you wanted to visualise.

"It can be somewhere you've felt safe before or somewhere you felt at your most rational." She said.

Damon flickered through his mind, trying to think. Somewhere, sometime when he felt rational? That was a joke. He was tempted to chuckle but he could feel how deeply Stefan was into his trance and he didn't want to disrupt that. He exhaled and tried to concentrate.

"Think of a time when you felt absolute clarity." Nisha soothed.

Then he had it. There was no clearer time in his life than the moment he realised that he couldn't live without Stefan. They'd been through a lot, but the moment he knew he couldn't live without him, had been when he'd woken up sad and drunk in their Chicago apartment alone after Stefan had left him. Yes, that was the moment. Not only was the memory vivid, it was motivated with the reminder of how important Stefan was and this was for Stefan. All of this.

"That's right. You've got it." She soothed. "Whenever your heat comes, you'll know that you can come back to this place and you will be able to think clearly."

Damon didn't remember much from after that. He'd felt so relaxed he actually dozed until Stefan nuzzled him. He hummed and opened his eyes.

Time to go to bed.

Stefan's eyes were large with intention and Damon sat up and followed him robotically. Nisha didn't speak, so as not to bring them too sharply out of their meditation stupor. They walked back to their cabin, Stefan practically dragging him in and closing the door with a clunk as it locked.

Bed.

Stefan channelled and Damon removed his clothes and climbed into their bed. Stefan took a few deep breaths and disrobed too, climbing slowly. They began to kiss slowly and gently as they settled around each other.

"No sex." Stefan mumbled in between kisses and Damon nodded. "Just touch me."

It was strange to get to touch Stefan and scent him but not to penetrate. Every cell of his body wanted to, but Stefan wanted to know they could control themselves and that this intimacy would be enough. Come his heat, they'd get stuck together for hours on end again and they couldn't have that with Vida in her crib in the next room.

They sighed into each others' mouths, focusing on staying in the place they'd created to stay human. It was a challenge though as they both grew hard and needy. Stefan began to gyrate under him, shivering as Damon sucked at his throat and slid his hands over his body gently. Damon moved down onto his chest and took his nipple into his mouth and Stefan let out a moan of pleasure and began to leak from his entrance.

This has to be enough, it has to be enough…

Stefan ranted in his head, trying to shake the urge to open his legs wide in invitation and Damon rocked against him, humming at the scent of the fluid. He continued to tease Stefan's nipples, delighting in the taste of the swollen tissue there and Stefan began to pant and squirm.

"God!" Stefan mewled as Damon changed over to the other nipple now, dragging his hair across Stefan's smooth milky skin as he did so.

Stefan rocked his hips upwards and pulled the hair at the back of Damon's head slightly, just enough to make Damon inhale.

"God I want you." Stefan struggled unhappily. "I want you so badly."

Damon licked over his nipple one last time and raised his head to look at him.

"It's ok." Damon soothed and Stefan squeezed his eyes tight. "I'd be worried if this didn't make you feel this way Stefan. It's natural."

Stefan gave a nod but Damon could see that he was struggling. Quite frankly the notion that Stefan believed they could get through a heat without any penetrative sex was wishful thinking in Damon's opinion. He didn't believe for a second that they could, but he had to be supportive and try to at least.

"Want me to stop?" Damon whispered and Stefan grunted and opened his eyes again.

"Can you use your fingers?" Stefan swallowed and Damon grinned at him in the affirmative.

Fingers were safe, as long as he could control himself and not push his manhood in afterwards. He kissed his way down over Stefan's muscular abs, sniffing at the abdomen.

"Is it working?" Stefan asked.

"Yeah, you're not fertile right now." Damon smiled at him reassuringly.

Stefan relaxed with an exhale. His trigger was working. Thank god. Damon kissed his stomach and inserted his fingers gently inside of him. Stefan opened his mouth and exhaled at the relief. His entrance pulsed. As Damon moved his fingers in and out to caress his insides, he licked around Stefan's inner thighs – now saturated in his fluid. Stefan began to gyrate in enjoyment and whimper as Damon twisted and bent his fingers inside.

Don't think little blood machine, just feel it. Relax. I won't cum in you.

Damon's reassurance aided Stefan's orgasm and he climaxed onto his stomach breathlessly. Damon slowed his fingers and scented his emptied manhood, cleaning him and making small gentle bites of ownership. Stefan lay his arms behind his head and sighed. Damon continued to kiss his body and stroke his skin gently.

Stefan opened his eyes and looked at him, reaching for him to pull him forward, back up to his face again. Damon draped himself over him and kissed him lightly.

"Thank you." Stefan whispered and Damon kissed his brow and forehead. "You're turn."

He reached his hand between their bodies, feeling Damon's erection still leaking. He took him in hand and began to squeeze and juice him. Damon rested his face in at Stefan's neck and exhaled, gyrating as Stefan worked him.

My beautiful mate. My black haired one, who wants to cum in me so bad but won't, just for me.

Stefan channelled as he increased his effort and Damon began to pant and moan into his neck.

Stefan…

Let me take care of you.

Stefan urged Damon to sit back and Damon did so with a grunt of confusion. Stefan scooched down a little and licked his lips and Damon frowned in confusion.

"Fill me up." Stefan grinned and opened his mother teasingly.

Damon exhaled a laugh of delight and hovered above him, lowering his manhood into Stefan's mouth gently. At this angle it would be hard not to fuck Stefan's mouth to deep as he was below but Stefan knew and had initiated it. Stefan tilted his throat and took him deep, looking at him throughout and Damon lost his mind at how carnal it was. He moved as though he was taking him and Stefan hummed and swallowed him over and over until Damon emptied his seed down his throat. He leaned forward to steady himself and held the headboard of the bed for support as he breathed.

Stefan slipped him out of his mouth and flexed his jaw, sliding his hands up Damon's thighs to his bottom and squeezing there.

When the heat came, Stefan wanted to avoid penetrative sex. If they could still have this though, it'd be absolutely fine. Damon nodded to himself and lay down beside him sleepily. They curled in towards each other and had a snooze.

Damon awoke to Vida channelling their faces to him and he sat up in surprise. He looked to the space where her bassinet stood and remembered she wasn't here. She was with Constance. He yawned and kissed Stefan's shoulder to rouse him.

"Lady impossible wants us." He nuzzled his neck and Stefan hummed.

"What's wrong?" Stefan asked sleepily.

"She must be hungry. She channelled."

"She did?" Stefan sat up in surprise and Damon nodded.

"Guess that's another plus. Even if we do get a little intoxicated with each other, we'll feel her and we'll remember." Damon smiled and Stefan gave a reserved nod.

"Let's go."

Constance was polite and civil when they arrived and squeezed Stefan's shoulder comfortingly.

"She's been great. Slept most of the day."

"Really?" Stefan asked in surprise. "She's normally really active."

"Maybe it's my scent." Constance shrugged as Damon raised an eyebrow and took Vida's bassinet from her.

"Thanks." Stefan said appreciatively and they left to return to their own lodge.

Vida was well and truly awake now and she squealed and wanted to play when they took her out and held her. They lay her on the floor on her mat – while Damon cranked up the mobile height to avoid her being able to grab at it. They both sat with her, cooing and tickling her and she soaked up the attention from both of them and drooled, moving her arms and legs and panting in excitement.

A few hours went past and they tried every toy and game to satisfy her and tire her out but she seemed overly exuberant and demanding. Stefan cracked his neck tiredly and sighed. Damon leaned over and kissed his neck, biting playfully and Vida clapped her hands and giggled.

"Have a nap. I got her." Damon suggested and Stefan nodded gratefully.

He scratched his chest, feeling his nipples itch slightly and leaned down to place a kiss on her head. She gurgled and looked up at him.

He stood up, stretching and went into their bedroom, scratching his chest and discarding his vest. Keeping up with Vida was getting a little more tiring, but then again, his heat was coming soon and perhaps that was why he was tiring too. His scent must be increasing as Damon had sucked and licked at his skin for a lot longer than normal today. He'd almost climaxed on himself through the ministration on his nipples alone. Perhaps they were more sensitive because of the heat? Hell, Nisha advised that most of his body felt more alive to sensation. He remembered a little of that from the spell heat but some of his memory of it was starting to cloud now.

He remembered feeling so hot he wanted to pull his skin off and the torturous feeling of needing to be filled – a feeling he wasn't looking forward to repeating. Still, as Damon kept reminding him, this heat would be different. They wouldn't revert to being animals and they'd be together from the start. If they could continue like they had today, he'd be satisfied with that and they'd still be able to look after their baby without help from the others. That was more important than anything else in his mind. The only time Damon would get stuck inside of him would be during a heat. If they could get through the heat without Damon being inside of him and being stuck, then after the heat Damon could have him all he wanted.

Damon didn't understand his worries. He seemed to feel that the trigger solved all of their problems but it didn't. Yes, thankfully now Stefan could control his abilities to conceive, which was incredible, but it didn't mean they could control anything else and he wanted control. Control was something he'd always struggled not to have in any given situation.

He lay down on top of the bed covers and relaxed, closing his eyes. When Vida was older, it'd be easier. She could go and stay with Anne and Michael and they could have a penetration heat, but not now. Not till she was walking and talking and not as much of a handful.

Not till then.


	2. Chapter 2

:-p

Xxx

Chapter 2 TH

Stefan didn't sleep much during his nap. His skin itched and he scratched and grunted throughout. Damon eventually managed to feed Vida and put her down for the night in her bassinet beside them and climbed into bed with him, spooning him. After that, Stefan slept soundly.

They spent the next few days in meditative training with Nisha again, discussing the results of having sex afterwards, each time. They'd managed not to have penetrative sex on all occasions – aside from using Damon's fingers and they'd both began to feel like they could really do this.

The fifth day, Stefan felt a little more agitated and Nisha pulled him aside as they moved to leave for their afternoon 'practise'.

"Stefan, you're close. It won't be long now." She advised and he swallowed nervously. "Don't be afraid, although this is new to you, remember that it is a natural process. It keeps your body healthy."

"The small part of it that's alive." He grunted, grumpily and she nodded.

"One day, this is all going to seem like nothing. Once you get used to heats, they are wonderful and intimate. You'll wonder why you panicked so much."

"I hope so." He gave a small smile and scratched his chest, frowning.

"Your skin is tingling?" She raised an eyebrow and he nodded. "That's normal early onset."

"I thought it might be." He sighed.

"Go, be with your mate." She smiled and he followed Damon out of her hut.

Damon held him around his back and kissed his shoulder.

"I thought we could try something different." Damon said and Stefan grunted and awaited his suggestion moodily. "What?" Damon chuckled in surprise and Stefan shook his head.

"Nothing."

Damon frowned and kept silent until they were safely in their lodge, before turning to him.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." Stefan pulled at his clothes and felt relief at being naked.

"We don't have to do anything today."

"No I want to. It's coming. Any day now." Stefan paled.

"Then I have a good idea for practise." Damon smiled reassuringly and began to remove his own clothes. "You've almost been surrendering to some horrible fate lately. As if this heat is going to be a punishment or something."

"I'd call having your will ripped from you punishment, wouldn't you?" Stefan huffed and lay down in their bed waiting.

Pain.

Damon channelled and Stefan grunted.

"Is that how you really feel about this?" Damon asked stunned and Stefan sighed.

"I don't know."

"The idea of having wild, fantastic sex with me for a few days is a punishment?" Damon asked incredulously and Stefan paled.

"I don't mean it like that."

Damon shook his head and turned away from him abruptly.

"So what does that make me in this scenario then?" He mumbled and looked back at him sharply. "Some kind of rapist?"

Stefan's mouth fell open in horror and he tried to pull him into an embrace.

"You remember how much I said I hated your empathy?" Damon hissed and pulled away from him, buttoning his clothes back up as Stefan's heart sank. "Well I'd give my damn arm for it now!"

Damon was angry, mad. Stefan opened his mouth to respond when he stormed out of the lodge and left him speechless. He sat down, shaking with adrenaline. His brain rolled over and over with thoughts. He hadn't considered Damon in the heat much, partially due to the fact that it was Stefan's body that would be consumed by it. Still, Klaus had said that apart, Damon would have a mania. He never did explain what that meant and why. These were the questions they should have been asking but hadn't because they'd been so focussed on fertility and restraint.

His body was blocking his brain. He always noticed when others were in pain. It was who he was. He hated the thought of people suffering and yet he'd missed it because Damon was a good actor and hadn't mentioned having any concerns other than the ones they both shared.

This wasn't good.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Damon stormed away from the lodge seething and wanting to seriously injure someone or some thing. A few of the wolves cleared out of his path as he walked through the middle of their new building project. It looked like they were planning to build some more lodges and stay here a while. At least some sense had come from their stay with them.

He moved to the spot where he was trying to build a heat lodge and surveyed it. He had the blood of a builder running through his veins but it didn't mean he knew how to build. He figured it couldn't be that hard, considering. He shook his head as he looked at his effort. It wasn't exactly attractive – a rickety hut with a roof that kept sloping for some reason. He sighed, his heart heavy and sat down on a fallen log. He kept failing. He'd been so busy messing around in the dirt earlier, he'd left Stefan to keep an eye on Vida alone and she was too fast and too smart to leave alone for a second. He'd become more and more aware of her increasing intelligence over the past week and she was beginning to be able to move two or three notches lesser than vamp speed. Stefan wouldn't have seen it coming.

Stefan was so afraid and he felt as though being around him, trying to comfort him was making it worse. Their bodies were tuning in and preparing. Just this morning he'd noticed some new changes in his body he hadn't told him about. Stefan didn't need any more worries. He rubbed his chest and grimaced. He was sweating a lot and his skin was itching like crazy. His libido was up and that was a strain. No matter how good Stefan was with his mouth and hand, there was no comparison to joining. Joining was…out of this world with Stefan, but Stefan felt as though the upcoming heat would be like a violation. The thing Stefan failed to realise was how much Damon missed having Stefan inside of him.

They'd had such a varied sex life and he missed that. It almost seemed like Stefan just expected to roll over all the time now and although it felt good, it felt like an incomplete experience now after having shared so much. He wanted to tell him that but without Stefan believing it to be a way for Damon to mollycoddle him and try and make him feel like a man. Damon was walking on eggshells.

Perhaps they should separate for the heat. He didn't believe Klaus's warning for a second. He could take care of Vida and Stefan could stay here. That way Stefan could relax and not worry. Damon could care for her and then come and feed and scent Stefan systematically until it was over. That could work. His insides disagreed though. It felt instinctively wrong to be apart.

A crackle in the woods behind him startled him out of his thoughts and he turned and peered at the intruder suspiciously.

"Hey." It was the guy wolf Ian – the one who'd fought beside Nathan.

Nathan had good things to say about Ian. Apparently he was a good guy, trust worthy and loyal. Hell, Nathan had only known him for like a minute, but Nathan did have a good judge of character. Nathan. Damon sighed sadly. He actually missed the little bastard. He was willing to bet that Nathan wouldn't unconsciously make Stefan de-emasculated. No. Nathan was a wolf and knew how this all went and he would make Stefan feel excited about the heat, enthusiastic and equal.

He sighed to himself again at that thought. He didn't know how to make Stefan feel like himself.

"Want some help?" Ian asked and approached the disastrous mess of a hut before him and Damon huffed.

"Nah. Thanks."

Ian nodded and reviewed the building thoughtfully.

"You've got a real good foundation there." He remarked and Damon snorted in disbelief and looked down at his feet, shuffling some mud under his shoes.

"My first roof fell right in. Roofs are a bitch." Ian chuckled and Damon huffed irritated.

"Does alone time mean nothing to you people? Christ!"

Ian stopped talking and cleared his throat. He took a seat next to him on the log and Damon glared at him.

"Free country." Ian said nonchalantly.

"Why don't you go and built a cottage or something huh? Isn't that what you guys do?" Damon grunted and Ian frowned and stared him out.

"Nate said you were hard work, but Jesus." He shook his head and Damon blinked in surprise.

"Nate?" Damon scoffed.

"Your beta."

"I don't have a beta, I'm a damn vampire!"

"Not anymore. Sorry pal." Ian shrugged unapologetically and Damon clenched his jaw. "I can smell your rut and that aint no vampire thing."

"My what?" Damon frowned at him in disgust.

"Your rut. You know, your heat."

"I'm not in heat, Stefan…what are you talking about wolf boy?" Damon stood up annoyed.

"You don't know about ruts?" Ian asked surprised. "No wonder you're being such an asshole."

Damon growled and his veins came to the surface of his eyes.

"Sit down. There's shit you have to know."

"Like what?" Damon smirked.

"Like what's happening in your body."

Damon stared at him hard for a minute before sitting back down and trying to calm his racing heart.

"Thought you'd know this. A rut is your cycle. It happens when there are potential partners in heat around you. You been sweating, itching like a man covered in red ants?"

Damon nodded.

"Having…erotic dreams?"

Damon blushed and avoided his eyes.

"You bigger down there?"

"Ten out of ten." Damon mumbled.

"You're going to get real territorial and paranoid. Especially around your little one. So you have to decide soon what you're doing with her."

"What do you mean?"

"Is she staying or going?" Ian searched his eyes and Damon bristled. "If you and Stefan really want to try this…abstinence thing and keep her with you, then you have to let me know so I can keep everyone else away."

"Why?" Damon swallowed and shifted on the log uncomfortably.

"Because if you can't look after her and one of us tries to come in and get her, you'll lose your mind and attack us."

Damon sighed and thought on that. It wouldn't surprise him if it played out like that. Hell he felt a little like that already, especially with Constance.

"When you're in heat, you're more aware of what's yours – your mate, your space, your cubs and pack. Normally when one of our couples goes into heat, we take the cubs until it's over. It's what wolves do, but you guys…why do you want to do it this way?" He seemed genuinely confused and Damon exhaled.

"We don't plan on staying. We need to be self sufficient."

"Yeah but, right from the first heat? You haven't been wolves long man. You're making it ten times harder on yourselves than it has to be."

"It's the way it is."

"There's being self reliant and there's being crazy Damon. It's your first one. Hell my first rut I practically tore my place apart. Couldn't remember a thing afterwards."

Damon looked at him nervously.

"Did you have a mate?"

"No, I was a kid." Ian tilted his head in acceptance. "My first rut with a partner was…intense."

"How so?" Damon narrowed his eyes in interest.

"I felt drunk the whole time, going from one need and sensation to the other. It was amazing but terrifying."

Damon swallowed bile and thought on them losing their minds again.

"Hey, what you guys went through…it's nothing like that. I get why you're both so freaked out. A real heat is intense and scary but you're in it together completely. A heat is supposed to be for forming mating bonds that last a lifetime. It brings you together, gels you. Nothing is the same again."

"We've had that a couple of times. We're already mated god damn it!" Damon stood up again and kicked at the dirt fiercely in frustration and a stone travelled through the air and knocked some of his sloping roof down.

He put his face in his hands in misery and Ian gave a sigh of understanding.

"Take my advice Damon. Give me and Isabella, Vida. We have a one year old daughter and she'll be able to play. She'll be fine. She's such a calm kid."

Damon looked at him sadly.

"I get the vampire part of you is used to doing things solo and not trusting people, but you have to embrace the new wolf stuff. I've been watching Stefan struggle with it. It's going to be hardcore for him and he needs you – more than Vida does right now."

"I don't even know you. You expect me to hand over my baby?"

"Smell me." Ian stood up and Damon took a step back frowning.

"What? Thanks but I'm not all that interested."

"Smell me. Go on, use your senses and tell if I'm a threat or a pack member." Ian said confidently. "Come on I know you've done it before. Nathan told me how awed he was that you began to smell him as family, that you scented him. Trust that wolf aspect."

Damon exhaled and stared at him.

"If you guys don't start trusting your new abilities and bodies, you're going to rip yourself apart and your baby."

Damon stifled a growl and chewed his lip.

"I'm not sniffing you ok?" Damon grunted and walked away from him to lift the remnants of the roof.

Ian sighed sadly and shook his head. Damon placed the wood back on the roof and tried to make it stay this time as he ignored the wolf. He'd had enough of this weird pep talk.

"You're making a mistake." Ian said.

Damon ignored him until he walked away back to the camp.

"Wouldn't be the first one." He mumbled under his breath as the whole hut structure fell apart and catapulted him onto the forest floor with a thud.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Stefan sat by the fire, drinking some bourbon and thinking. It had been a long time since he'd had some alone time with his thoughts. He used to spend so much time thinking and evaluating. He missed having that space in his head. His journal lay beside him and he stared at it.

"I miss everything about you, even your damn journal writing…"

Stefan recalled the list of things that Damon had said he loved about him and missed when they'd broken up in Chicago. He smirked, remembering his surprise that it wasn't just sex and blood Damon had missed. As much as Damon made fun of Stefan's need to write down his thoughts and feelings to understand them and the world around him, Damon loved that about him too. So where had that Stefan gone lately? When had he stopped writing?

He honestly couldn't remember. So much had happened. He opened the journal with his fingers as he sipped from his glass.

"Damon seems different, so aggressive and territorial. I don't understand what's going on with him. Earlier he went for Nathan and nearly killed him just for touching my shoulder…"

He huffed at the last entry. Everything had escalated from then. The spell had driven them all the brink of their minds and then took them from them to suck them dry. After they survived the spell, they were ill and then they found out about the baby and then she arrived…

Their lives were one big exclamation of "…". They should print it on a damn t-shirt or something. Had he changed so much? Was he still the same Stefan Salvatore as before? He didn't feel like he'd changed that much, aside from physically but perhaps he had. Damon seemed to think so. When had he stopped trying to read people? When had he stopped reading Damon?

He shook his head and got up, moving to the window to look out into the night. Damon had been gone for hours. Where the hell was he? He looked over to Constance's' lodge and sighed. She was being so helpful, probably because she had to seriously make it up to them. She said she could take Vida for the night, so Stefan had given her a couple of their bottles to feed her with. Constance thought it was odd that Vida was only drinking their blood and not animal blood – a conversation they'd have to bring up again later, but not now. Vida was happy, they were happy, so best to leave it at that for the moment.

He spotted Damon's silhouette walking out from the woods, towards the lodge and his heart picked up. He stepped back from the window and took a seat by the fire again. Damon came in and avoided his eyes as he stripped his jacket. He was covered in mud and smelled of earth and wood. Stefan stood up.

"You ok?" He asked and Damon nodded silently and hung his soiled jacket up on a hook. "How'd you get so dirty?"

"I was building in the woods." Damon said simply and gave him a fleeting look as he went through to their bedroom.

Stefan picked up his bourbon and followed him slowly, giving him some space to breathe. Clearly Damon was pissed off and didn't want to be suffocated. He leaned against the doorframe as Damon took his clothes off and fussed getting them into the hamper. Stefan kept silent and watched.

"Where's Vida?"

"Staying with Constance tonight."

"What? Why?" Damon looked at him and frowned full of irritation.

"I thought we needed some time to talk things through." Stefan offered and Damon exhaled dramatically and looked up to the ceiling.

"I'll wash up and go get her."

"No you won't." Stefan said firmly and Damon looked at him in surprise. "She's fine where she is and I want to talk to you."

Damon grunted and fidgeted with his lamp at his side of the bed.

"I'm sorry." Stefan said.

"Forget about it. It's fine." Damon messed around with the plug and socket.

"I forgot how hard this is for you."

"I'm fine."

Stefan blurred over to him and threw the lamp aside onto the floor and Damon jolted back in surprise.

"Leave the damn lamp!" Stefan hissed and Damon swallowed and sat down. "Talk to me."

"What do you want me to say?"

"What's happening with you? All we've done is deal with how I am, but how are you? What are you feeling?"

Damon swept his tongue over his bottom lip and sighed, unsure of how to proceed.

Show me.

Stefan channelled in request and Damon shook his head lightly.

"You don't…want to channel with me?" Stefan frowned and Damon hung his head and huffed.

"Of course I do!"

"Then let me see."

"Stefan I don't know how I feel. Seeing it in my head isn't going to help you, alright? It'll probably just make things worse."

Stefan sat down next to him and they fell silent for a few minutes.

"Ok. Then talk to me then." He said gently.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you. I just, had to get out of here." Damon sighed.

"I know that this heat is making me crazy Damon. I know I act like it's going to be terrible for me, but I don't feel that it's because of you or it's your fault."

Damon grunted.

"I don't know what I would do if I didn't have you with me."

Damon squeezed his knee.

"When this heat's over, we'll be fully evolved into whatever the spell started. We'll understand it better. We're just still trying to fight and figure out what we are." Stefan advised and Damon nodded.

"Klaus was right." Damon mumbled and Stefan turned to him. "I'm not…I'm not ok. Things are happening inside of me."

"Like what?" Stefan searched his eyes intensely and Damon blushed. "Can't be any worse than mine." He tried to joke.

"I'm having weird thoughts again, primal." Damon closed his eyes full of anxiety. "Stefan what if I hurt you or Vida? What if I lose my mind again?"

Stefan squeezed his hands as they both vibrated with fear and uncertainty.

"What if I'm so territorial that I hurt one of you, or I don't feed you both enough, or I forget about Vida completely?"

"That's been my fear for us too."

"But it's my job to make sure that doesn't happen." Damon said strained and Stefan frowned.

"Since when?"

"What?" Damon searched his eyes.

"She's mine too. It's my job just as much yours to look after both of you."

"I know, it's just…"

"That's not us Damon. That's hormones. We are equal. We are both as strong, as fit, as fast…I don't need you to protect me."

"I know." Damon nodded.

"I think you need me though." Stefan surmised and Damon frowned in confusion. "You've never had much self control and that's what really frightens you isn't it?"

Damon chewed his lip.

"I've been pushing you away and not looking after you lately."

Damon said nothing.

"Whatever happens in the heat, we are still us ok? We'll figure it out." Stefan squeezed his hand again. "Now let me take care of you."

Damon looked at him hopefully and Stefan brought their mouths together gently. Damon softened, feeling his muscles ease in his stomach at the contact.

"But not like this." Stefan whispered into his mouth and stood, pushing him towards the shower.

Damon chuckled and got inside and Stefan went to get them some bourbon. Damon washed himself, feeling better. His manhood stirred as he washed over it and he looked down to examine it. It was bigger. He gulped. Most men would throw a parade to see their size increase but to Damon it was simply a reminder of things he couldn't control. He squeezed it. At least it didn't hurt. He busied himself, washing thoroughly and ran his hands over his chest. His skin was still over-sensitive and itchy and he scratched as the hot water slid over him.

Make my bourbon a double.

He channelled and heard Stefan chuckle through the sound of the water spray. He smiled to himself and turned the shower off, grabbing a towel and stepping out. He moved through to the bedroom and found Stefan sitting in a chair, drinking bourbon and watching him.

"What you doing?" He asked in surprise and Stefan gave a predatory grin.

"Let me see you." Stefan gestured towards the towel wrapped around his waist and Damon grinned back at him.

He dropped the towel and stretched teasingly, showing off the muscles bulging in his arms and flexing his abs as Stefan followed his happy trail down to his manhood. Stefan licked his lips and took a sip of bourbon lazily.

"Nice." Stefan smiled.

"It's all yours little blood machine." Damon smirked and stood confidently.

"Yeah. I haven't been taking advantage of that have I?" Stefan stood up and sat his glass down.

Damon shot him a sexy smile as Stefan walked over and slid his arm around his back. Stefan leaned in and began to kiss around his jaw and into his neck softly and Damon felt his sexy smile fade to one of longing as he softened and leaned in. Stefan felt his stance change and he held him tighter and pulled back to kiss his mouth. Damon kissed back deeply.

I want you.

Stefan channelled and Damon sighed into his mouth.

Please, let me have you.

Damon held him tight and nodded enthusiastically. Stefan pulled their mouths apart and cupped his face. Damon's eyes were wide and full of emotion.

"You don't mind?" Stefan asked sincerely and Damon gave a small huff.

"I thought you'd never ask." Damon croaked and Stefan felt his blood ignite.

All this time Stefan thought Damon wanted to be in charge, be the one to take him. Clearly that wasn't true. They kissed with more passion and Stefan moved them back to the bed, pushing Damon down onto it. Damon brought his legs up and opened them in invitation and Stefan stripped his clothes as he grew excited. He climbed onto the bed, in between Damon's legs and pulled him forward suddenly. Damon lay back and watched him, excitement evident on his face.

"Look at you." Stefan mused thoughtfully and Damon blinked. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Damon gave a small shrug and Stefan lay on top of him to kiss him. Damon brought his legs up and around his back and sighed.

I'll take care of you my black haired one.

Stefan kissed into his neck and Damon leaned his head back, relaxed and full of yearning. Stefan took his manhood in hand and lined up with Damon's entrance. Normally he'd use his own fluids to lubricate him, but he wanted this to be like sex had been before all the changes. He pushed in a little at a time, savouring the feeling of Damon's insides stretching to accommodate him and Damon made small gasping noises and gyrated.

"I love it when you're this tight." Stefan whispered against his neck and Damon moaned. "Don't think I want any lube anymore. I want you just like this."

He pushed the rest of the way in and Damon gasped and opened his legs wider. Stefan raised himself up on his arms so he could watch his face and began to move, slowly. Damon closed his eyes as the blush crept up from his chest to his cheeks.

"So beautiful." Stefan whispered and Damon moaned. "Your body is all mine."

They both panted and grabbed at each other as they became sweaty and more aroused. The heightened sensitivity was making lovemaking even better than usual and although Stefan was leaking and pulsing from behind, he didn't care. He wanted to make his mate cum, make him happy and spent.

"Stefan harder, please…" Damon moaned and Stefan raised Damon's legs up like he was holding a wheelbarrow. "Uhhh…"

Stefan began to thrust hard and deep and Damon began to fall apart underneath him. It'd been way to long since he'd felt like this, so in control, so powerful and needed and desired. This was what was missing from how he'd been feeling lately and he hadn't needed to feel that way. Damon had wanted him all the time and just hadn't said anything.

"Stefan, Stefan…" Damon began to whine and he climaxed onto himself.

Stefan sighed in happiness and lay his legs to either side of his waist again as he leaned forward, running his tongue up through Damon's happy trail, up to his chest. Damon made small whimpers and moans and Stefan decided to give him a taste of his own medicine from the other day. He took one nipple into his mouth and licked delicately, making Damon arch up and whimper again. Damon always had sensitive nipples but he seemed to be responding a lot more than usual.

So good, Stefan…!

Stefan swirled his tongue and began to thrust slowly again, flexing his manhood upwards to brush Damon's prostrate and Damon moaned loudly and grabbed the headboard behind him. Stefan let his hands wander up over Damon's muscles, squeezing and kneading the flesh until Damon arched into his mouth again and began to whisper curse words. Stefan must be doing well then.

He ran his hand up to his other nipple and began to stimulate it as he sucked the other and Damon began to pant in preparation of climax again.

"Ahhh, uhhh!" Damon shouted loudly and climaxed again, but this time Stefan pulled back in surprise.

Damon chuckled and threw his hands over his eyes as he calmed down from the high, unaware that Stefan had stopped.

"My god." He chuckled.

Stefan pulled out of him silently and Damon removed his arms and smiled down at him, his face falling immediately when he saw the expression on Stefan's face.

"What's wrong?" He sat up and reached for him and Stefan frowned and shook his head, looking down at Damon's chest. "What?"

Stefan didn't answer, couldn't answer. He reached out and touched Damon's chest and Damon looked down confused. Stefan traced his fingers over Damon's nipple and pulled his fingers back, staring at them. They were coated in a fluid. They both stared at it blankly.

"What is that?" Damon asked shakily and Stefan gave a short shake of his head and looked at his chest again.

Damon looked down and touched his nipples. Both were covered in a clear fluid and it wasn't saliva. He frowned and brought his fingers to his nose, sniffing. It smelled not unlike the fluid Stefan produced but slightly sweeter.

"What's happening?" Damon felt fear fill him and he tried to wipe the fluid away desperately.

Stefan stuck his finger in his mouth and sighed at the taste. Damon looked at him frightened and unsure and Stefan smiled.

"You taste…unbelievable."


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry If I haven't answered any personal messages from anyone, I'm up against it time-wise, but I do read them all and think of you.

Chapter 3 TH

Damon jumped off of the bed, almost falling over in fear and Stefan looked at him in surprise. Damon sniffed his fingers, panicking and running to the bathroom to clean himself. Stefan got up from the bed and followed, calling after him. He went into the bathroom to find Damon frantically scrubbing at his chest in horror and checking no more fluid was emerging.

"Damon, Damon its ok, calm down." He approached slowly, speaking softly but Damon was in a fully fledged panic.

Stefan waited until he was dry and touched himself to inspect. The fluid had gone and he was dry again. Stefan moved to him and touched his chest too.

"What the hell…" Damon exhaled, full of emotion and Stefan looked at his face and squeezed his shoulders.

"It's gone. It's ok." He cooed and Damon searched his face, still breathing harshly.

"What happened?"

"When you came, it…it just came out."

"What?" Damon's eyes bulged and he rubbed at his chest again with the towel, feeling violated.

"It tasted really sweet." Stefan said thoughtfully as he chewed his lip.

"This can't be happening, why would this happen?" Damon began to pace and Stefan watched, unsure what to do. "Why would I…what's it..?"

_Love, safety._

Stefan channelled and Damon leaned over the sink again and exhaled, trying to calm down. Stefan slid his arms around his stomach and kissed the back of his neck, whispering comfortingly.

_Fear._

Damon channelled in response and Stefan began to scent the nape of his neck. It seemed to help him calm down after a few minutes.

_It must be the heat._

"Why?" Damon whispered and looked at Stefan's face in the mirror. "What could this possibly be for?"

"Maybe it's for me?" Stefan guessed and Damon turned around to look at him. "Maybe, it's to keep me strong or something? It does taste really good, so it must be for ingesting."

Damon chewed his lip and touched his nipples again.

"Yeah. Maybe." He nodded, a little calmer.

That did kind of make sense. Stefan had been super hungry last time around and it was difficult at times not for Damon to need the bottles when Stefan drank so much. Maybe this fluid was extra strength of what animated them in each other's blood. He gave a small unsure smirk and Stefan raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Damon asked unsure and Stefan grinned.

"Well, don't I get to try some?"

Damon blinked, his eyes wide with anxiety and Stefan sighed and cupped his face.

"I know it's creepy and weird. I felt like that when my body changed so much. I get it." He squeezed his shoulder and Damon gulped. "Like you said, whatever is happening is natural you know? This is what we are now."

"Yeah." Damon responded but Stefan didn't feel the agreement or sincerity in it at all.

"Hey, so you leak out a little fluid for me. So what? You've seen how much fluid I release when I want you – you could bottle it and I know you love the taste. This might mean that we don't deplete each other when we're feeding. Maybe it'll make us both stronger."

Damon closed his eyes and scratched his chest.

"Just let me try some and see how it feels?" Stefan nudged him and Damon looked at him again, paling a little. "We don't have to do anything you don't want."

Stefan guided him back to bed and they lay down together. Damon was stiff and uncomfortable as Stefan lay down on top of him.

_Relax my black haired one._

Stefan searched his eyes and Damon nodded and slid his arms up Stefan's back. Stefan kissed him softly for a while, trying to get him to relax before they experimented. Once Damon's muscles had softened, Stefan parted their mouths and kissed into his neck and collarbone. Damon gyrated a little and stroked Stefan's sides, sliding his hands over his soft skin. Stefan made his way down slowly to his nipples again and paused briefly to look up at Damon's expression. Damon looked terrified. He sighed and sat up a little, frowning in concern.

"Don't stop." Damon mumbled when he saw Stefan's face. "Try it."

Stefan didn't know what to say. Should he pursue this with Damon clearly so uncomfortable?

"Do it. See if it happens again." Damon urged and Stefan circled his thumb over one of the nipples.

Damon's reaction was immediate and his jaw dropped open as he felt pleasure. Stefan huffed in surprise and Damon's began to harden in his groin.

"That good?" Stefan smiled and Damon nodded. "Geronimo then."

He leaned down and began to lick and suck at one and Damon stroked his fingers through Stefan's hair as he sighed and twitched. The small bud hardened and grew under his tongue and he began to stimulate the other nipple, just like he'd done before. Damon began to rub his manhood against him as he mewled and panted.

_Give me some. Just a little._

Stefan channelled as he sucked.

"Uhh." Damon moaned.

Stefan took Damon's manhood in hand and began to pull at it, pumping him quickly to speed up this reaction. Damon began to whisper curse words again and arched as he climaxed over his hand. Stefan kept sucking and licking but nothing came out this time. He continued until Damon whispered his name and he lifted his head.

"I'm spent." Damon sighed tiredly.

Stefan frowned disappointed. Maybe Damon's body could only do it once? They'd have to try again later and see if it happened again. Damon gave a chuckle and Stefan looked at him.

"Look at that face." Damon pulled a moping expression of imitation. "You really wanted to suck me dry huh?"

Stefan huffed and stroked his hand over Damon's chest once more.

"Just means we have more experimenting to do." Stefan gave a small dissatisfied smile.

"Honey I have a headache." Damon joked tiredly and closed his eyes.

Stefan lay down beside him, draping his arm around his waist to hold their bodies together and they surrendered to baby-free sleep for a change.

Stefan awoke with a start, finding Damon snoring beside him. His heart was thundering and he looked around. Where was Vida? He jumped up and went into the lounge, looking for her. Where was her bassinet? He moved around the small room, searching for it - channeling to her, but she didn't answer. He panicked, throwing the door open and looking out towards Constances' lodge. He ran out to find the area deserted. Where was everyone? Their cars were gone.

"Constance?" He called out and went up to her door, banging loudly. "I'm here for Vida."

There was no response. He knocked again, his skin crawling in fear. Something wasn't right here. Everything felt wrong. He knocked again, before pushing the door in. It fell inside with a clatter and he coughed violently as dust filled his lungs. He made his way inside, looking around. This must be the wrong lodge, no one had been in here for a very long time.

"Vida?!" He shouted now and spun around, looking back out to the rest of the camp. "Where are you baby?!"

He went back outside and looked around, tuning in his ears. There was absolutely nothing.

"Damon! Damon!" He screamed and ran back to their lodge. "Damon! Vida's gone! Vida's gone!"

He ran in to the bedroom, tears rolling down his face when he stopped abruptly. Damon was still asleep. How could he be asleep still?

"Damon!" He shouted and went to him, shaking him and trying to roll him over onto his back. "Damon wake up!"

He pulled him harshly onto his side and choked in horror. Beside Damon's body was a small body wrapped in a blanket. He reached out and lifted it.

"Vida?! Baby?" He cried and opened the blanket to check her when he screamed.

The yellow skin of death stood out harshly from the white blanket. Stefan dropped the bundle and screamed, grabbing at his hair as the empty eye sockets stared out at him accusingly. She was dead and had been for a while. Dead and forgotten.

He woke up screaming and shouting and Damon had to bite the scruff of his neck and climb onto him to calm him down.

"No!" He screamed and thrashed and Damon growled, holding him down.

_Calm, Stefan calm down!_

_We killed her! We killed her!_

Stefan channelled the image of their dead baby to him and Damon's whole body seized. He panted, trying to hold him down but Stefan was fuelled with adrenaline and he had to snap his neck to subdue him. He sat back, releasing his scruff and panted afraid. What the hell had caused a dream like that? He turned Stefan over and held him in his lap, stroking his face guiltily.

A knock sounded on the door and he looked up, his heart racing.

"Damon, Stefan are you ok?" It was that Ian guy.

Damon lay Stefan down and threw his jeans on vamp speed, moving through to answer. He opened the door to see a few concerned faces.

"We heard screaming. You ok?" Ian asked and Damon wiped the sweat from his brow and gave a nod of affirmation.

"Nightmares?" Nisha asked from beside him and Damon swallowed and nodded. "I'm not surprised.

"Can you, can you get Vida please?" Damon croaked, his throat dry from sleep and Nisha nodded and moved away towards Constances' lodge.

Ian sighed and searched Damon's face.

"You ok?"

"Yeah." Damon said simply.

"If you need anything…" Ian offered and Damon gave a nod again and Damon looked over eagerly when he saw Nisha carrying Vida's bassinet back over to him.

He didn't respond to Ian, merely walked down the steps and toward Nisha to take his precious bundle back. Those gathered got the message and moved back to their own lodges. Damon took the bassinet and looked down at the sleeping baby. His whole body relaxed as he stroked her head. Nisha put her arm around him soothingly for a second and he blinked away tears. Stefan's dream had been so real, so horrific.

"Get some rest." Nisha walked him back to his door and he nodded, unable to take his eyes from Vida for a second unless she vanished.

He gave a small smile as he closed the door and Nisha retreated. He sat the bassinet down and lifted Vida carefully. He needed to hold her and Stefan certainly did. He'd never seen Stefan so wild and terrified before. Only showing that she was alive and well would calm him down.

He held her for a few moments, trying to shake Stefan's dream from his mind as she breathed against his shoulder and gave little sleepy moans.

"Daddy's got you." He whispered and breathed in her scent. "Nothing's ever going to happen to you."

He looked through to the bedroom to see Stefan still out of it. He swallowed and walked through slowly, not to jostle her and lay her amongst the pillows on his side of the bed. He pulled Stefan back into his lap and rubbed his neck. That was going to hurt. He exhaled guiltily and bit into his wrist, laying it over Stefan's mouth.

After a few seconds Stefan moved and drank from him. He frowned at the pain in his neck and moved his head to crack it into place again. Damon stroked his face with the other hand.

_Safe, love, mate, baby._

Damon channelled and Stefan's eyes flew open as he remembered. He sat up abruptly and Damon shushed him and indicated to where Vida lay.

"It's ok little blood machine. It was just a dream." He whispered and Stefan stared down at her and couldn't help himself as he moved to her and lifted her in disbelief.

She moaned and began to cry but her cries were music to his ears and he began to sob as he held her and kissed her face. Damon held him and scented his neck as Stefan lay Vida in the crook of his elbow and touched her, checking she wasn't injured – checking that she was real. She wailed in tiredness, tears pouring down her face but all either of them could do was smile in relief for a few minutes.

"It's ok angel. It's ok." Damon began to coo as he realised how unhappy she was and tried to take her from Stefan.

Stefan wouldn't surrender her though, shaking his head at Damon when Damon channelled the image of her bassinet.

"I can't." Stefan croaked and lay down instead, holding her to his body and patting her back.

Damon deliberated for a moment, unsure of whether she would settle, but he lay down next to him, sandwiching her between them. She continued to cry but their body heat and smell must have begun to comfort her as she quietened down to a gurn.

Stefan cooed to her, rubbing her back and Damon scented the back of her head, while holding Stefan's hip soothingly. Slowly she quietened and began to sleep again with her hands clutching Stefan's chest. Stefan let silent tears slide down his face as they all fell silent and Damon stroked his hand up his sides.

_It was just a dream._

Damon soothed and Stefan nodded.

_She's ok. She right here._

_I know. It was just…so real._

Stefan looked to him and Damon nodded.

_Go back to sleep._

Damon urged and Stefan nodded and closed his eyes, smelling the top of Vida's head before he relaxed again. Damon barely slept a wink all night after that.

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"Hey, how you feeling?" Ian asked as Stefan walked through the camp.

"Good, thanks."

"Gave us a fright last night. Thought we were under attack." Ian said and Stefan frowned in confusion. "Rough night?"

"Uh, yeah I guess." Stefan continued to walk slowly as Ian fell into line with him.

"The dreams and stuff pass, they're just a warmer up."

"A warmer?"

"Yeah, coz your hormones are crazy."

"Right." Stefan sighed.

"Have you thought any more about us taking Vida?" Ian asked and Stefan stopped and looked at him.

"What?"

"For your heat. Like I told Damon, we have a baby…"

"No. Thanks but no." Stefan cut him off short and Ian paused.

"We're all just trying to help Stefan. You came to us for that remember?"

"I know you're trying to help. I appreciate it, but she stays with us."

Ian gave a reserved smile and held his hands up, backing away and turning to walk back the they'd came. Stefan watched him go and couldn't ignore the knots in his stomach. He didn't like being made to feel like he was being ungrateful. He did want their help, but not like that. He knew it was common for cubs to be cared for by other pack members but that was normal for them, they'd been brought up that way. He and Damon hadn't ever had that kind of connection to people, especially not with something as precious as Vida. He couldn't fathom it, especially after last night. There was no way she was leaving his sight again.

He continued to walk into the woods. Vida had awoken unhappy and fussy from her interrupted sleep and Damon had lain her onto his chest and tried to entertain her, lifting her in the air and swooshing her above him. She seemed to like it. Still, she was being a madam today and Damon had told him to get some air and relax.

He passed by some of the wolves cutting timber and he stopped to watch. He used to enjoy watching his father build properties when he'd been a child. He thought it was genuis the way things were cut and placed together to actually produce the structure from a small architectural drawing. It had encouraged him to try carpentry a few lifetimes ago, hoping he had some of the family abilities in him somewhere.

He approached them and they stopped for a rest and welcomed him. Everyone had been so welcoming. They were so lucky to have their aid.

"Hey, Craig." A large dark haired man introduced himself.

"Stefan."

"We've met before actually, but…in battle." The guy advised and Stefan scrutinised his face trying to remember. "This is Mark, Adam and John."

"Hey." Stefan smiled at them all and they gave a respectful nod. "What are you building?"

"Some new lodges. This place is pretty old and falling apart. Got some wood rot in most of them." Craig said and Stefan raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Their cabin seemed perfectly sound.

"Can I help?" He offered and Craig nodded enthusiastically.

"You build?"

"Uh, not really. Done some basic woodwork, carpentry stuff but nothing as big as this." He gestured to the huge logs they were cutting down.

"Carpentry? That could be helpful. If you're up for some lessons, you can help. How strong are you?" John asked and Stefan gave a small smile and bent down, lifting the giant log and raising it with one hand.

Their mouths dropped open and he couldn't help stifle a grin at that. Wolves were strong but vampires were stronger, certainly he was at his age. He sat the log down and waited until they all recovered themselves, before Craig looked to the others and cleared his throat.

"Ok then, you're on."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Damon rubbed his eyes as Vida fought with him on her changing table. She was Miss Squirmy today and kept trying to turn onto her side and grab at the baby products littering the table.

"Vida." He huffed and turned her back onto her back again and she giggled, enjoying this game. "Do I have to tie you up lady?"

She smiled widely at him.

"You're lucky you are so cute or I would." He admonished and she searched his face. "You wouldn't be the first broad I'd tied down." He smirked and she kicked her legs.

He massaged some baby lotion onto her belly, holding her down with the other hand as she began to gurgle and look around. Once he was done, she stuck her foot in her mouth and gurgled around it as he opened one of the drawers lower down on the table, looking for a babygrow. He pulled out one of the new ones that Elena had bought. It had a picture of a deer on the front and he snorted in mirth.

"Ironic considering dadda used to hunt Bambi, huh angel?" He chuckled and Vida flipped herself over in a flash and was almost falling off the edge of the mat, when he caught her vamp speed.

She panted a little disconcerted and he held her as his heart hammered. That had been close. She was getting faster. She moaned unhappily at the lack of freedom to move and he held her out in front of him.

"You trying to give me a heart attack?" He asked and she stared at him and gave a small sigh. "Christ."

He pulled the changing mat off the table and lay it on the bed instead. Maybe they should change her down here from now on. All it took was a second and she could be off and hurt herself. He lay her on the mat again and this time she stuck her fingers in her mouth and just watched him. She must be able to sense how hard his heart was beating. He unbuttoned her babygrow and began to dress her. She didn't fuss and he was relieved at that. When she was all buttoned up she reached out a saliva soaked hand and gave a small shout.

"What's that?" He cooed and she frowned and shouted again.

She channelled an image of a pacifier and he gave a smile.

"That's my girl." He said proudly and lifted her as he moved back to the changing table and pulled one out of the smaller drawers at the top.

She squealed and reached for it and he popped it into her mouth. She immediately began to suck on it and looked up at him. He kissed her forehead and she curled her fingers around a piece of his t-shirt.

"What should we do now?" He whispered and she blinked slowly at him but didn't tear her gaze away. "How about a story?"

He walked through to the lounge slowly and sat in the rocking chair as he thought on what to say. He sat down and cradled her. She channelled and image of Stefan to him and he smiled.

"You want to hear a story about dadda?"

He sat back, rocking as he thought on what he could tell her that was appropriate child content.

"Dadda and I grew up not far from here a long time ago. Things were a lot different back then…"

He chatted to her, checking every now and then on her wakefulness. She held onto his vest as she listened and he stroked her tiny fingers. His voice became so soothing as he described he and Stefan's early years to her, that her eyelids eventually began to droop and before long, she was asleep. He continued to rock in the chair anyway. He never would have thought that he could enjoy domesticity so much. The thought of staying home to look after an infant had never seemed like something he'd do, never mind enjoy. When he'd been a young man, he'd dreamed of being a father. It had been something he wanted full heartedly, but that was a very different time, where his wife would have breastfed and attended to the child's needs and he would simply step in when the dirty work was done and teach them things.

He couldn't imagine having missed moments like these now. He looked down at her little fist still holding his vest. If he'd been a father as a human, he'd never have had this time with her. For the first time, he was glad this had happened now.

Stefan came in and smiled when he saw them both.

"Hey." He said quietly and approached them, kissing Damon's mouth softly. "How's my girl?"

"Fascinated with 1890s industrial history." Damon joked and Stefan smiled in confusion. "Story time involved early family history."

Stefan exhaled comically and shook his head.

"I hope it was an edited version."

"No Stefan, I told her about the vampire demon who came, stole our virtue and hijacked our lives." Damon said sarcastically.

"Yeah, don't know how we're going to respond to those questions yet."

Stefan scented her head and pulled back to rub his nose with Damon's.

"You smell of wood." Damon commented and Stefan smirked suggestively.

"Yeah, I found your heat hut."

Damon's eyes widened and he huffed unhappily, full of embarrassment at his efforts.

"I'll fix it. I'll work through tonight." Damon promised.

"No, don't worry about it." Stefan chuckled. "Besides, we'll be ok here. She'll be ok here."

"I thought your dream had made you change your mind." Damon said a little surprised.

"It shook me up, but now I know I don't want her out of my sight. Maybe that's what my dream was telling me, to keep her here where we could make sure she's ok."

Damon gave an unsure nod.

"How do you feel?" Damon asked and Stefan sat down on the sofa next to him.

"Still me. A little hotter but I've been helping the wolves to build."

"You have?"

"Yeah. I fixed the support beams on your hut and I reckon I've got a good design for the roof."

Damon gave a huff of surprise. Clearly at least Stefan had the family knack.

"Did she feed?"

"Yeah, loads. I gave her a bottle too."

"You did?" Stefan asked surprised and he nodded.

"I used one of those ones with the fake rubber bit."

"You used a real baby bottle?"

"Yeah, she seemed to like it. Clung on and practically fed herself the bottle."

"She didn't try to bite it?" Stefan raised an eyebrow and he shook his head. "She usually does. Constance said it was a nightmare trying to feed her."

"She's a quick learner." Damon smiled, impressed. "Maybe too quick."

"How so?" Stefan leaned forward.

"She's moving more like us. She almost flipped herself off the changing table."

Stefan's eyes widened and he looked down at her little limbs. She was that fast already? How were they going to keep up with her?

"We have to keep an eye on it." Damon nodded.

Stefan exhaled and rubbed his face.

"Anyway, I was going to help out a little more out there. Do you mind?"

Damon blinked at him in surprise.

"I mean, you both look so comfortable." Stefan gave a shy smile. "Would you mind? I just, feel like I need some guy time. You know?"

Damon bit his tongue and looked down at Vida's peaceful expression.

"Yeah. Sure." Damon gave a tight smile.

Why did it have to be one of them having time to themselves at a time? Why didn't they hang out together more? Stefan felt his emotion and he leaned in to kiss him reassuringly.

_We're going to be surgically attached in a few days. I feel like I'm more myself today and I've been bonding with the other wolves._

Stefan explained and Damon gave a small smile and nodded.

"Love you." Stefan smiled, stroking Damon's hair back from his face.

"Call me when you're hungry." Damon said as he stood and took a quick sip of bourbon.

"Will do." Stefan headed out there and then and Damon sighed and rocked in his chair.

He actually wished they had a t.v. in here. Gone were the days he could jump in his Camaro and go for a drink. Vida sighed heavily and turned her face in towards his chest and he stroked her hair softly. Man was he whipped and not just by Stefan anymore. He had been well and truly neutered.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Stefan laughed and joked with the wolves. They were all good company, if a little chauvinistic. Pack life seemed to evolve pretty much around the strong males building and protecting and the women rearing and feeding them all. It seemed a little antiquated but it worked for them.

As he sat down for a break, watching the foundations of a log cabin being put together, he thought on Caroline and Tyler. What must life be like for Caroline right now? She wasn't a wolf but as far as he was aware, she was living amongst them. She must feel like an outsider. Although he, Damon and Vida were part wolf, even they felt a small separation from the rest of the pack. Perhaps it'd just take time.

"Hey Stefan can you give me a hand?" John asked.

He liked John. He was built like an Ox with sandy blonde hair and covered in tattoos. He'd joined the army as a teenager and had triggered the curse while on duty. He'd gone AWOL after that, unwilling to let himself be used by any of his command as a weapon. His return to civilian life had been a rollercoaster for him and Stefan felt a connection there. He and Damon had been through so many battles, they understood what it was like. Stefan felt as though he'd be able to talk to John someday, confide in him and perhaps help him. After all, he'd seen a few wars, been on the front line a few times.

He stood up as John motioned him over to help him hold a side of a wall up. Stefan's strength had been a real delight to them all and they'd made much quicker progress than they were used too because of that.

"Hold it here." John instructed and Stefan held the wall easily, looking to him for instructions.

Despite his strength, the wall kept moving and he broke into a sweat as he tried to keep it steady. John was trying to nail it to another log when Stefan removed one hand and wiped the sweat from his forehead. John looked over at him unblinking.

"Guess I'm out of shape." Stefan chuckled and leaned into the wall again, when John was suddenly in his space.

"You ok?" Stefan frowned, taking in John's strange expression.

"Stefan, you…you smell…" John babbled and Stefan opened his eyes wide as John leaned in and licked his bicep.

Stefan jolted back and the wall began to fall. Everyone noticed and shouted in warning, running to help steady it, but it fell on them, knocking John to the ground. Stefan pushed the wall up and off of them, cracking his broken arm into place again, but John didn't look so good. He was holding his chest and wheezing.

"John! John are you ok?" Ian ran over and the others checked Stefan and moved the wall to the side, trying to figure out what had happened.

Stefan stood shell-shocked as Ian soothed John.

"Get Nisha! Adam, get a stretcher. I think he's got broken ribs." Ian said authoritively and looked to Stefan. "What happened?"

"I…I don't know." Stefan frowned and John gave out a growl, attracting Ian's attention.

John stared at him, his pupils dilating as he looked at Stefan in lust and Ian stood up and pulled Stefan backwards.

"You're heat's starting. Go."

"What?" Stefan frowned.

He felt alright.

"You can't be here right now. You smell too distracting and people will get hurt. Go, be with Damon." Ian said and Stefan gulped back pain at being expelled from the group.

He looked to John again and gave a stiff nod.

"I'm sorry." He said to John and Ian squeezed his shoulder.

He walked back slowly feeling annoyed and angry with himself, with this body. He broke into a run to try and burn off some steam and climbed the steps to their lodge, when Damon threw the door open, eyes blazing and fangs out. He opened his mouth to speak when Damon grabbed him by the front of his vest and pulled him in, growling.

_Mine!_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 TH

"Damon! Damon!" Stefan gasped as Damon slammed the door shut behind them and pressed him up against it, sniffing him deeply and holding him so tight his head almost spun.

_Mine, someone on you! Mine!_

Damon growled angrily, territorially and Stefan exhaled as Damon squeezed him harder so he couldn't move as he began to sniff down to where John had licked him.

_Its ok my black haired one, it wasn't his fault. I shouldn't have been out there like this._

Stefan tried to excuse John's behaviour in fear that Damon would go looking for him and hurt him. Damon panted and began to lick over his arm furiously, marking him and Stefan stayed still and let him, grunting as Damon squeezed him tighter.

_Damon, you're hurting me._

Damon growled in annoyance but lightened his hold and Stefan reached up slowly and ran his fingers through Damon's hair, cooing gently.

"I'm ok." Stefan whispered, leaning his face into Damon's hair as Damon licked down his arm, cleansing him.

He inhaled Damon's scent through his head and Damon shivered and paused.

_Mate._

Stefan channelled and Damon slowly stood upright again and looked at him full of emotion. Stefan cupped his face and stroked his cheeks with his thumbs.

"Mine." Damon croaked as though he didn't believe it himself.

"It was my fault. I didn't realise how they'd react to my smell."

"Doesn't give him the right to touch you." Damon swallowed some anger down as his face tightened and Stefan nodded.

"I know." Stefan agreed and hugged him to him, stroking his back and looking around the room for Vida.

She was sleeping soundly in her bassinet by the rocking chair, unaware of the conflict and noise.

"It's started." Stefan mumbled into Damon's shoulder and Damon nodded.

"I could smell you, I was coming to get you when you came in. You smelled afraid and angry and then I smelled him." Damon almost growled again. "They all want you."

"No, they're just trying to help us Damon. No one is a threat to you. Ever."

Stefan tilted Damon's head up to force him to look into his eyes and Damon nodded begrudgingly

"Help me get out of my clothes, I'm burning up." Stefan whispered and Damon's pupils dilated.

They both looked around at Vida and were satisfied that she'd be ok for a while. This was what they'd been practising for. They were ready. Stefan led him into the bedroom and closed the door. Damon's breathing became shallow as Stefan began to remove clothes. Every patch of fabric removed from his body sent the sweet aroma of heat to Damon's nostrils and his eyes changed into full vampire as he felt his body respond.

Stefan stopped at his jeans and looked at him. Damon practically tore his own clothes off and then knelt down on the floor at Stefan's feet and began to unbutton him. Damon's smell of arousal made Stefan's skin itch and he began to flush and pant slightly. It was so hot in here. This part, he remembered from last time and yet it seemed slower. Hopefully it would remain like this so they could keep their wits about them.

Damon pulled Stefan's jeans down and immediately scented his hardening sex. Stefan moaned and lifted one ankle at a time to remove his jeans completely. Damon sucked on him, sliding his hands up and down Stefan's thighs until his knees became like jelly.

_Bed._

Stefan channelled and Damon released his manhood and stood up slowly, kissing his way up Stefan's six-pack and chest. They moved backwards to the bed and lay down on top, kissing as they held each other and ran their hands over their skin. Stefan tilted his neck and Damon bit down and drank, making Stefan close his eyes in pleasure and moan. Damon climbed on top of him and licked his neck clean, staring down at him afterwards.

"No sex, remember." Stefan panted full of arousal and Damon frowned in frustration but nodded. "We're not animals."

Damon began to scent Stefan's whole body, taking his time and stroking until goose flesh appeared all over him. The roses were potent and fabulous as they writhed against each other. Stefan made small moans of encouragement as his body came alive. His skin grew hotter, making him sweat but Damon soothed it with his tongue and gave him the touch and attention he needed. He exhaled loudly as a bead of sweat ran down the side of his neck and Damon pulled up from his position at his ribs and began to scent there, his cool tongue cooling Stefan down and making him feel cared for. This was what he'd wanted when he'd been stuck in that library with Nathan. He'd felt like he was on fire, desperate to cool down and have Nathan scent him to help. Clearly scenting was used to keep him from going out of his mind at this stage.

He didn't know how long they lay there with Damon cleaning him and keeping him cool. He could stay like this for a lifetime and not care. Damon held him gently, with such adoration and care that he felt like the holy grail. He arched his neck up and opened his legs, groaning as he felt the cramps begin.

_Want you._

He channelled by accident and Damon gave a small growl as he bit and nipped around his thighs. Stefan's manhood jumped to attention again and Damon pumped him with his hand gently and slowly as he licked around it and moved between his thighs. Stefan closed his eyes as he felt the fluid begin to release. He actually liked the feeling now, it made sex much more erotic and full of sensation. He'd miss the excitement of waiting for it to come if he didn't have it anymore.

_It's for me._

Damon growled and channelled as he traced his finger around Stefan's entrance, collecting some fluid.

_All for you. Mate, love, need…I need…_

Stefan made a small whine and Damon tilted his pelvis and began to lick up the fluid. Stefan grabbed a hold of the headboard with both hands and mewled, trying to bite his lip, in case they made too much noise and woke the baby.

"Uhhh, uhh…" he whimpered and Damon stuck his tongue inside. "Oh god…"

Damon hummed and held his thighs open commandingly so he couldn't move and went to town. Stefan began to pant and spasm with every entry of Damon's tongue and he saw stars as he climaxed. He panted loudly and closed his eyes for a few seconds, waiting for Damon to return to his mouth again to kiss him. He opened his eyes when he felt Damon tighten. He looked down and saw Damon pumping himself and staring frustrated at Stefan's entrance.

"No sex." Stefan reminded breathlessly and Damon grunted in acknowledgement of that and huffed. "Please."

Damon grunted again, biting his lip and Stefan sat up and pulled him to his mouth. Damon kissed back a little surprised by the swift movement but he wasn't given much of an option. Stefan rolled them over, still kissing and rubbed his body against Damon's. Damon held him around his back and opened his legs. Stefan pulled up smiling in surprise. This wasn't so bad. Damon hadn't turned into some crazy sex beast. They hadn't lost their minds and Damon wanted Stefan inside. This was wonderful.

Stefan pumped himself as they kissed and then entered him. His body flooded with endorphins and they began to move together, with Damon meeting him thrust for thrust and nipping at his neck and jaw line. This could be great, this could always work. A heat where he took Damon and to fill his body's needs, Damon would use his fingers. It could work, it could work.

_Mine, mine…_

Damon's eyes filled and he held onto Stefan tighter as Stefan pushed deeper inside of him and hit his prostate.

_Yes, you're mine._

Stefan growled and began to ram him hard and fast, locking their mouths together so he could swallow Damon's cries of pleasure. Damon climaxed just as fast and furious and they both chuckled and kissed.

"Still human?" Stefan asked, smiling.

"Still 33.33333% human." Damon chuckled back.

"I knew we could do it." Stefan sighed and Damon flipped them over again.

Stefan chuckled and flipped them back and pinned Damon down. He looked down at Damon's stickiness and leaned into his chest sniffing in hope. He began to scent around his nipples, tasting how electric Damon was. Everything about their bodies was becoming more potent. Damon stroked through his hair as Stefan tried his hardest to get some of the sweet fluid to come out again, to no avail. He gave up and descended down to Damon's abs, enjoying the way they all contracted under his tongue.

"Stefan…" Damon sounded as though he was struggling and he looked up at him in surprise. "Lie on me. I want you covered in me."

Stefan almost chuckled at that, considering he was covered in his body fluids already but Damon's eyes seemed to widen and grow blacker and he realised that this was the heat working on his brain. Damon's brain wanted him to claim and scent and impregnate his mate and they couldn't do that like normal.

Stefan climbed back up to his mouth and lay his body on top of his. Damon wound his arms around him tight and rolled them onto their sides. He relaxed in the tight embrace as Damon's manhood flexed again. Stefan was leaking fluid and pulsing from behind and clearly it was affecting them both. Damon rubbed his manhood against Stefan's and made small bites around his neck and shoulder while he did so.

"Put your fingers inside me." Stefan whispered encouragingly and Damon did so immediately, holding him chest to chest and inserting them deep as Stefan's whole body convulsed in need.

He whimpered and buried his face into Damon's neck as he tried to breathe out the desperate need for him to replace his fingers with his manhood.

_This'll be enough, like last time._

He channelled and Damon began to bend and move his fingers, all the while panting and rubbing his manhood between their bodies. The friction felt so good, so at least he didn't feel too left out of this. Stefan clutched at him, growing more excited by the second and then his body grabbed Damon's fingers and squeezed them. Stefan shouted into Damon's skin and climaxed, making their rubbing bodies sticky again and Damon gasped and concentrated on the feel of the milking on his fingers. It was such a strong pull, no wonder it pulled his seed from him.

Stefan made small moans and mewling sounds as it continued and Damon whispered to him soothingly until he climaxed again and slumped completely into him. Damon withdrew his fingers slowly and rested his hand on Stefan's lower back. Stefan fell immediately into a sleep.

Damon lay there for a while, scenting his neck and the side of his face as Stefan's body continued to sweat and heat. He wouldn't mind a continuation of this. They could totally do it.

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Stefan awoke later to Damon scenting him around his groin and he gave a small sleepy moan and opened his eyes. He had no idea what time it was, but he felt great and full of energy. He smiled to himself widely and stretched. Damon hummed and bit into his inner thigh to feed, now that he was awake.

Vida began to cry in the other room and they both looked over to the door. Stefan smiled in triumph. They could totally do this. He still felt the heat making his skin itch and sweat and his entrance was still pulsing a little, but her cries were important enough for them both to be able to notice.

Damon got out of bed and walked through naked. Stefan sat up and reached for his jeans still. Damon had gotten up without saying a word. That was strange. Maybe he was on autopilot right now. Stefan zipped himself up and walked through too, immediately wincing as the denim seemed to chafe and make his skin complain. He grunted and scratched. Damon was feeding Vida from his neck, still standing and staring at him blankly.

_Love._

Stefan channelled and Damon's eyes changed for a second.

_Love._

It was evidently a struggle for Damon. Stefan reached out to take Vida from him, so he could get his human brain working and Damon growled at him and stepped back.

_Mine._

Damon channelled and Stefan huffed in surprise.

_My cub too._

Stefan countered and Damon blinked hard and looked at him again with a little more clarity.

"Damon." Stefan said softly and Damon blinked again. "You still with me?"

Damon huffed and held her tight for a second, scenting the side of her head and she sighed and moved her face away from his neck, resting her head on his chin.

"Damon?"

"Yeah." Damon said finally as Vida burped and smiled up at him, reaching to touch his mouth with her little hands. "I'm ok."

Stefan exhaled, feeling the tension release from his body. Vida gurgled happily and Damon let her put her fingers into his mouth. He sucked them for a second and she giggled delighted and looked at his face.

"My baby." He whispered.

Stefan gave a small smile as Damon began to bounce her lightly. His skin was starting to feel hotter and more uncomfortable again. Damon looked over at him scratching and let his eyes roam.

"How are we going to do this?" Damon struggled as Vida sucked her own fingers now and squirmed. "I need… I need to take care of you Stefan."

Stefan wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked around. They couldn't simply leave her back in her bassinet, she was wide awake now, but he could feel his body's demands too.

"She can't watch us." Damon exhaled heavily and Stefan nodded.

Stefan looked around. He hadn't thought this far ahead. Stupid of him. He spotted a play pen in a box that they'd bought for her recently. She was probably much too small for one but it'd have to do for a while. He moved to it and tore it open. Damon kissed Vida's forehead and tried to keep himself calm. There was a rising enemy of lust and demands beginning to fill his brain and he was little anxious about it. Last time, he'd smelled Stefan, he simply had to have him right there and then. He'd fought Nathan for him and immediately after, he'd stumbled across Mike. He'd felt lucid and calm then, mind you he had had a physical fight with Nathan for dominance and perhaps that's why he'd been a little clearer headed afterwards. The adrenaline had helped him gain some control.

Vida studied his face in curiosity as his mind whirled.

"It's ok princess." He whispered and she frowned and stuck her hand in her mouth. "Stefan hurry. I can smell you." He groaned, closing his eyes and Stefan built the play pen in a blur.

Stefan exhaled loudly as he stood up, looking at the pen. She'd be unhappy but maybe she'd be entertained until he and Damon could join in whatever way they could for a round. Then they'd hopefully be sated again and could feed her and put her down for another nap. They could take it increments. Without the worry of predators and competition, they could break the days into parts and see to her needs after they'd seen to their own. He nodded, but grimaced as he felt his entrance leak fluid down his leg. He held onto the back of the sofa and tried to breathe. This cramp was a bigger one. Damon growled and he looked at him. Damon was barely holding it together.

Vida made a strange sound of confusion and put her hands on Damon's mouth again and Damon huffed.

_Hurry!_

He channelled and Stefan nodded and brought the pen over, sitting it in front of them.

"Where will I put it?"

"In the bedroom." Damon grunted and Stefan shook his head.

"She'll see us from there."

Damon growled again and closed his eyes.

"Somewhere she knows we're still here and we can talk to her." Stefan suggested and looked to the ensuite.

Damon chewed his lip torn. He didn't want her to be in the bathroom and confused.

"Put her in the bedroom and we'll stay in here." Damon suggested, bouncing her. "It's her room too."

Stefan nodded in agreement and put the pen in there. The room smelled of their heat and he wrinkled his nose. She would smell it, but would she know what it was? They didn't have much choice really. He grabbed an aerosol that had been left over from previous users years ago and sprayed it around the room. Damon came in, almost itching out of his skin and huffed in disgust at the scent.

"It smells like sex in here." Stefan explained and took her from him.

Damon seemed a little reluctant to relinquish her again but did so. Stefan kissed her forehead as Damon left the room again, his fists clenched.

"Daddies need to be together angel." He struggled and she stared up at him. "Do you understand? We're right here, but we…play for a while please?" He begged and lay her into the pen.

It had various toys and attachment inside at her arm reach level and she looked at her new things in wonder. He was sure she'd be ok. He huffed in apology and walked to the door, before freezing. It felt wrong to leave her alone and awake.

_Stefan I need you._

He held his chest for a second and looked to the clothes on the floor. He grabbed one of his shirts on instinct and lay it in the pen for her. She clutched at it, dragging it to her mouth to suck on it. It was covered in his scent. For some reason he thought it'd help.

"We love you angel." He whispered and she busied herself with the smell and study of his shirt.

He retreated, leaving the door slightly ajar.

Damon had moved the furniture back and lay a soft rug next to the fire for them. He immediately undid his jeans and cast them aside as his blood ignited. Damon looked wrecked already. His cheeks were a furious colour of red and his fangs were out. Stefan felt his body vibrate. Damon groaned as he smelled more fluid drip down Stefan's legs and he blurred to him and pulled him down on to the floor with him. Stefan gasped and tilted his throat in invitation.

Damon panted, a little frustrated and Stefan looked at him in sympathy.

"Stefan please let me inside. Just for some of it. I won't cum, I promise."

Stefan's entrance began to pulse and he groaned and closed his eyes.

"I need you."

"No, Damon remember. We can't because…" He struggled, trying to remember why they couldn't.

"I won't cum." Damon climbed up his body and began to stroke him, settling between his legs. "No more babies."

Stefan groaned and surrendered to a deep, passionate kiss as Damon grabbed at his body desperately.

_No babies, just let me in._

_We're not supposed to._

_Please…_

Stefan shook his head and Damon frowned in torment. Stefan rolled them over and moved to Damon's groin. Damon's muscles were flexing and he could see just how coiled up his insides were. Clearly fighting the instinct to mount was taking its toll on him. Stefan swallowed his manhood and Damon hissed through his teeth and gyrated.

_This is enough remember? This is enough._

Stefan channelled and Damon moaned and tilted his head back as Stefan worked him his hardest. In the bedroom Vida began to cry and Stefan froze and pulled his mouth back, when Damon growled and squeezed his arms.

" _I_ need you." Damon begged. "Stefan."

"But she's…"

"Stefan!" Damon growled annoyed. "This is hard enough. She's fine."

Damon's look of anger quickly became replaced with a look of desperation and Stefan nodded and swallowed him again. Damon would be satisfied once he'd climaxed and them he could attend to her briefly. He immersed himself in his performance and Damon began to pant and moan in little gasps.

_I'm going to eat you._

Stefan growled and channelled, getting carried away in the enjoyment of the act as Damon's pheromones attacked his nose. Damon writhed beneath him and the urge to climb on top of him and fill himself, burst into the forefront of his mind.

_Want you, god I want you._

Stefan pulled up panting and Damon's eyes met his. He climbed onto him, straddling him and raised himself up to slide onto Damon's manhood when Damon caught him and shook his head.

"No!" Damon exclaimed and Stefan huffed. "You said no."

"I've changed my mind." Stefan shook his head.

"No, Stefan…I'm sorry. You're right." Damon argued and flipped them over.

Stefan exhaled loudly and frowned, confused by his change of heart and Damon held him down and took both of their erections in his hand. Stefan opened his mouth in pleasure as Damon rubbed them both together in his hand rhythmically. The sensation of their flesh rubbing was glorious and the look of intent in Damon's eyes made it all the hotter. Stefan rocked his hips and Damon moved his too, keeping a firm grip on their flesh.

"Love you little blood machine." Damon whispered and closed his eyes as they began to climax together.

"Don't stop!" Stefan begged until he felt Damon's fluid spill onto him.

He moaned loudly and let himself go and Damon continued to gyrate against him and pump him until he was also spent too. Damon fell on top of him and curled his face into Stefan's neck as they breathed together. Stefan smiled and put his legs around Damon's back to hold him there as he chuckled.

_Love._

_Love._

Neither of them heard Vida wail.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 TH

Damon stirred, shivering as Stefan removed his body heat from him. He sighed tiredly and turned onto his side. His mate was fine and he was safe. That was all that mattered. He felt sleep pull at him again and he relaxed completely, until he heard a sharp sound.

He grunted and sighed again. The sound broke through the thickness of sleep and he frowned in annoyance that he was being deprived of his dream state. What the hell was that noise? His mate would stop it.

An image of his own face suddenly flashed into his mind and he opened his eyes blearily and tried to sit up. He felt almost drunk as he scrutinized the room before him, which seemed to be spinning.

"Stefan?" He said drunkenly and blinked hard, bringing his hands to his eyes to press on them as he tried to find his balance.

A wail sounded. A wail of abject misery and fear and he looked around sharply. Vida. It was Vida and she was afraid. He gasped and looked around the room to orientate himself again, noticing Stefan's absence.

"Vida." He whispered and stood up, feeling his legs like jelly.

He held onto the side of the sofa as he righted himself and looked towards the bedroom. When had the door closed? His little angel must be afraid and fearing she was on her own.

He staggered forward, aware of his nakedness as he grabbed a blanket thrown over the sofa and wrapped it around his waist.

"Stefan?" He called as he approached the bedroom door and opened it.

He moved inside and looked around. Stefan was nowhere to be seen. He frowned in confusion and looked over at his daughter. Their tiny baby girl, all red faced and crying inconsolably. He blurred to her and lifted her, holding her to his chest and kissed her head, scenting her.

"Sssssh lady. Daddy's here. It's alright." He tried to sound convincing but he still felt slightly inebriated.

She turned her face into his skin and continued to cry and he felt his legs shake again. He moved over to the bed and lay down, holding her to him and whispering to her. She lay her mouth against his skin and began to suck there for comfort, drooling as she did. He rubbed her back softly and closed his eyes, pulling the blankets on the bed over them like a cocoon.

Stefan had refused to build a nest with him for the heat. Stefan felt like it would be too like the behaviour they had exhibited as animals and he didn't want to feel like an animal this time round. Damon had held his tongue about it. It felt natural to have a safe little place to snuggle into, but Stefan was the world and he'd do whatever he wanted to make him feel strong and secure.

Vida quietened and sucked on his skin and he curled into foetal position as he cleared his head. Where was Stefan? He relaxed his body and tried to sense him. He could go looking for him, but his baby needed him right now and she was the world too.

_Mate. Where are you? Baby needs us._

He channelled. Vida sighed and began to fall asleep with her mouth open against his chest. He sniffed her head, smelling fear and anxiety and he felt his stomach churn. He was her dad and he had left her alone. That wasn't right. That wasn't normal. He shook his head sadly, trying to shake the animal thoughts, when he heard a distant whimper of distress.

He opened his eyes and tried to tune in. Vida curled her fingers into his neck and exhaled, sleeping. He listened closely, holding her tight as he heard a sound of pain. It wasn't too far away. Stefan.

_Stefan? Mate, love, come to me._

He awaited a response but got nothing. He waited a few heart beats and heard a soft cry. Stefan was hurting. He was in pain and afraid. Damon sat up, holding Vida to him still, she gurned and squirmed in his embrace, but he couldn't focus on anything but Stefan. He held her to him and stood from the bed, seeking out his mate, sniffing for him. The lodge wasn't that large and yet, Damon was confused and disorientated still. He stood in the lounge and looked around.

He inhaled deeply and caught the scent of blood. His eyes widened. Stefan was bleeding. Was he hurt? Immediately he began to follow the scent towards another bathroom. He stopped outside and inhaled again. The door was firmly closed.

"Stefan?" He called.

A whimper sounded and Damon tried the door. It was locked.

"Stefan let me in!" He demanded, his heart racing.

Another whimper of anguish sounded and Vida stirred and buried her face in Damon's neck. He wasted no time, kicking the door inwards until it landed flat inside of the bathroom and he paused in horror at the scene before him.

"Stefan!" He gasped and darted inwards.

Stefan turned around to look at him, his face red with shame and self-loathing. He was covered in his own blood, blood that had come from his entrance. Even as Damon tried to pull Stefan's hand away from Stefan penetrating himself with his fingers and other objects around the bathroom, blood trickled down his body and onto Damon's hands.

"It's not enough, I can't…" Stefan croaked.

Damon panicked and lay Vida down on her back on the floor as he grabbed his mate who was deep in mating fever and tried to stop him impaling his torn entrance any further. Vida sniffled and pouted but turned her head to watch the display in interest.

"Stefan let go of yourself. Let go!" Damon pulled his hands away and held him tight from behind as Stefan panted and tried to struggle. "You're hurting yourself!"

Stefan cried out in semi-rage and desperation as a cramp rolled through him. He had to be filled. He needed to be filled by something, anything! He tried to turn around into Damon's arms so he could take his manhood in hand and Damon held him tight to avoid that.

Stefan whined and rubbed his backside against the thin blanket shielding Damon's manhood and Damon tackled him to the floor and held him down, climbing on top and biting his scruff. Stefan panted but calmed, enjoying the feeling of Damon's teeth in his neck. Damon inhaled as Stefan's rose scent attacked him. Why were they resisting this again? He blinked, feeling a little inebriated again and began to gyrate against Stefan's back.

Vida made a small gurn of displeasure and he snapped to attention, remembering what was happening here. He released his scruff and sat back. Stefan groaned and reached for his entrance again.

"Stefan stop." Damon chastised, pinning his hand down and Stefan began to writhe under him.

Stefan tilted his throat up and to the side, much in the same fashion as when they'd re-mated and the red veins had covered them and Damon stared at the soft skin there. Everything in him wanted to bite and drink from there, while spreading Stefan's legs and making love to him passionately, but they couldn't, at least not in the normal way.

"You're hurt Stefan. Relax, relax!" Damon cooed, rubbing his back.

"Damon!" Stefan pleaded. "Mount me please! The pain, I can't…you can stop it please!" Stefan begged.

It was the heat. It was stronger now. They'd gotten through the first few days ok but it wasn't over. Stefan could control his mind but evidently not his body yet and what his body wanted was to be filled, to be penetrated by his mate and bred. Damon panted, trying not to let his body respond. He couldn't! His baby was here, while his mate and love was bleeding and screaming for a coupling of bodies that he'd said he didn't want. Stefan had said no sex. He'd meant it. He'd been too afraid of them getting fused together. It was fingers or nothing as Stefan's body couldn't hold fingers inside.

_Love, safe, mate…_

Damon channelled and Stefan began to sob as though in pain as he contorted his body.

"Take me."

"Stefan, I want to but you said no. You said no…"

"Please, please..!" Stefan almost screamed and Damon choked back a sob.

His strong Stefan was reduced to a wreck. How had he managed to reject him so many times and bear his heat last time when they'd been animals?

"Stefan." Damon croaked and Stefan turned his head and looked at him pleadingly.

"Please, my black haired one. It's me, I've changed my mind. Please, please have me. It hurts too much." Stefan choked and Damon looked over at their baby, now crying as she observed how distressed Stefan was.

"Stefan not here." Damon whispered and Stefan looked up at him and tried to breathe. "Vida's here. If we get stuck…"

"I don't care!" Stefan hissed and tilted his throat wide again.

Damon felt tormented. He looked back at Vida and to Stefan again. What was he supposed to do?

"I love you, just hold on a few more minutes, ok little blood machine? I'll make it better." He whispered down at him and Stefan looked at him hopefully. "Don't touch yourself until I get back ok?"

Stefan nodded.

Vida wailed and Damon climbed to his feet again. Stefan was suffering so much and they couldn't have sex here with Vida watching. There was only one thing he could do. Vida reached up for him and he gathered her in his arms again. He needed help. He rushed back to the bedroom, lying Vida on the bed as he blurred around the room and dressed. Vida cried still, but at least she could see him. He lifted her again and moved towards the front door when there was a knock.

He jolted in surprise and unlocked it, opening it.

"Damon." Nisha said and looked at him knowingly. "Take care of your mate."

He nodded gratefully, noticing that several of the pack members were hanging around near the lodge and looking over as though awaiting problems. He swallowed and handed Vida over to her. Vida screamed and reached for him as he passed her over and he felt guilt burn in his belly. His baby. His baby wanted _him_ , not these wolves.

"Ssssh angel, daddies just need some time ok?" Nisha tried to coo to her but Vida squirmed and screamed unhappily.

"I'm sorry princess." Damon gulped, paling.

He channelled love and protection and Vida surrendered unhappily and lay back in Nisha's arms.

"I have some of your bottles. Go." She instructed and he nodded again and took one last mournful look at his daughter before closing the door.

He blurred back to Stefan, trying to concentrate on one of them at a time. This was a disaster and he knew Stefan would blame himself, his biology for the epic failure to be able to get through the heat and look after Vida. He would have to reassure him that she was fine and this was the better way. Try as they might, they couldn't ignore instinct. Meditation did help. It had helped. Damon was sure that had they not prepared so well for this, that he would never have been able to hand Vida over just now. He would have been feral. Of that fact he was sure.

He entered the bathroom and his nose filled with the scent of heat and desire. It was so powerful he almost tripped over. His eyes widened, tingling as his veins protruded. Stefan was standing, holding onto the sink, presenting his rear for him and waiting. He began to disrobe, pulling at his clothes and giving a low growl and Stefan leaned his head forward, bracing himself and panting as fluid trickled down his inner thigh.

Damon moved to hold him, sliding his hands around to Stefan's stomach as he nipped and scented the back of his neck, grinding his erection into him. Stefan whimpered.

"I'm sorry." Stefan croaked, full of embarrassment. "I'm not strong enough to fight it."

Damon squeezed him comfortingly and exhaled against his neck.

_Not supposed to fight it. It's for us._

Damon channelled and rolled his hips.

"I should be able to do it for her. I should be able to…" Stefan gasped at a cramp and groaned and Damon squeezed him and growled. "Damon…"

Damon pulled back and got to his knees, parting Stefan's buttocks to lick there. There was still blood and some healing happening to the sensitive tissue there. Stefan had really torn it. Damon growled and licked it, soothing the pain and clearing the blood traces. It would be ok to get stuck together now. Vida was fine. She was fine.

He stood up again and guided his manhood to his entrance. Pausing for a second as Stefan whined.

"Stefan, trigger?"

Stefan nodded, grunting.

"You sure?"

"Yes, yes, just do it!" Stefan snapped impatiently and Damon pushed inside and stilled as Stefan moaned, almost sobbing in relief.

Damon leaned into his back again, scenting his nape gently and began to make some small rolling movements. Stefan did begin to sob then, gripping the sink tightly.

_Love. Thank god. Damon…_

_It's ok little blood machine. We're meant to fit together._

Damon clasped his hands over Stefan's and intertwined their fingers as he began to thrust slowly. Stefan sobbed in relief, his tears falling down onto their joined hands as Damon cooed into his neck.

_Need to be better at this, need to be stronger for her._

Stefan ranted at himself, even as his body began to ripple in pleasure, causing his knees to weaken. Damon buried his face in Stefan's shoulder as he began to lose himself in him.

"Should be able to…do this without…uhhh…" Stefan moaned and leaned into the sink for support.

"Ssssh." Damon cooed and began to speed up his thrust and angle them to stroke Stefan's prostate.

Stefan moaned loudly and flushed scarlet.

"Stop thinking." Damon whispered.

Stefan nodded and sagged a little.

_I'm going to fill you up and then I'm going to lick every inch of you Stefan._

Damon channelled growling.

_You're going to have a belly full of me. You won't be able to walk today, you'll be mine._

Damon smiled as Stefan moaned and rocked back against him. He pounded, enjoying the harsh slapping sounds of their flesh meeting as Stefan took every inch of him inside greedily. He grunted, beginning to pant as the room around them began to go out of focus from the speed of his movements.

_My mate. Mine!_

Stefan gave a sob and nodded and Damon battered his prostate and bit into his neck finally. Stefan cried out in pleasure. They were almost there, both moving against each other wildly and squeezing their fingers around each other's tightly, when Stefan gasped and hung his head. The milking was beginning. The blessed pleasure of the milking and then they would join complete for a while and bask in their mating. Damon drooled, smiling happily.

_Useless. I'm useless. I'm a failure._

Stefan suddenly channelled and Damon panted, opening his eyes in disbelief as he felt Stefan's gut wrenching pain. He stopped moving and Stefan jolted in surprise.

_What?_

Damon breathed in pain. It felt as though he was being rejected, as though he was hurting him by joining like this. His brain whirled with thoughts of being inadequate, being a bad mate, forcing Stefan somehow and he moved to pull himself out of him.

"No, don't stop. You can't stop now." Stefan said full of emotion and Damon took a shaky breath.

He couldn't do this. Not with Stefan so clearly driven to join only because of hormones. Stefan didn't want this really and it hurt. He shook his head and began to pull out of him, when Stefan's muscles caught him and held him there. Stefan gasped and Damon grunted in surprise. It was too late.

"Of course." Stefan grunted almost bitterly and Damon held back tears and pulled his hips sharply out of him.

Stefan fell forward into the sink with a huff of surprise as Damon pulled his manhood out completely. Stefan panted in amazement and touched his entrance. They shouldn't be able to do that – should they? Once they were locked together, they shouldn't be able to pull apart like that, but somehow Damon had done it. He exhaled, grinning and turned to look at Damon, when he saw Damon's expression.

"Damon?" He turned to face him worriedly.

Damon looked like he was in pain and was shaking, holding himself.

"Are you hurt?" Stefan reached for him and Damon swallowed thickly and shook his head. "Damon…"

"I'm ok little blood machine. Turn around." Damon instructed and Stefan frowned, searching his eyes.

Damon bore his fangs and growled.

_Mine! Bend over!_

Stefan felt his heart skip and he turned around and braced the sink again. What was he up to? He jolted as he felt Damon's fingers slide inside of his entrance again and he whimpered.

"Damon, you don't have to."

_We'll finish this your way._

Damon wasn't angry. Thank god. Stefan moaned as Damon bent his fingers and inserted them as deeply as they would go. It was almost enough. Damon moved them, twisted and rubbed Stefan's prostate and Stefan felt his milking begin again. They'd been so close before, it wouldn't take much.

He moaned and hung his head and Damon slide his hand inside, his whole hand. Stefan cried out in surprise but it wasn't painful. His body immediately started to climax and the milking began, grabbing Damon's hand. Damon formed a fist and Stefan screamed and climaxed over himself. His body rode Damon's fist frantically, making Stefan cry out several times, until he was spent.

He panted and closed his eyes smiling. That had been amazing. It had felt almost like Damon had been sealed inside, like it had been his manhood. His body seemed to agree and Damon had to slowly unclench his hand so that he could slide his hand back out. Stefan melted into the sink happily.

_Love, love, love. I love you. We did it, we did it!_

Damon gently guided Stefan around and lifted him in his arms.

"Sleep." He whispered and Stefan closed his eyes and fell into a satisfied slumber.

Damon took him back to the bedroom and lay him in the nest. Stefan curled up into himself. Damon covered him over and stood back, breathing as quietly as he could. He reached down and took his manhood in hand, wincing and biting his lip at the damage there. Stefan shouldn't know. Pulling out of him like that didn't seem to have hurt him thankfully but Damon's penis on the other hand…

He inspected it carefully. He'd almost torn his foreskin completely off. He was bleeding and it hurt like a bitch. If he'd been human, who knows what would have happened. Thankfully he was already healing. He retreated into the lounge and sat down, squeezing it and riding out the pain. He'd go back to bed when he was fully healed and Stefan would know no different. Thank god his hands had worked. He'd had a feeling that making a fist inside of him would satisfy Stefan's insides.

He sat alone for an hour as he thought it all through. This had been traumatic. He didn't want to ever spend a heat like this again. Klaus said a heat was beautiful? What a bunch of crap!

He shook his head and got up. Sleep and hunger was pulling at him and he felt satisfied as he sniffed the air, entering their bedroom again, that Stefan's heat was ending. His pheromones were changing to normal levels again. Thank god.

Everything would go back to normal soon.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 TH

Stefan tossed and turned, feeling his body shiver. The heat was receding from his skin, leaving him feeling cold. It was so strange to feel cold. Vampires never felt a drop in temperature. He turned onto his side and reached for Damon, opening his eyes unhappily when he found an empty side of the bed next to him. This was becoming much too common for his liking.

"Damon?" He called, feeling a little abandoned and hurt.

His heat seemed to be ending but he was filled with emotion. He needed his mate. He sat up and groaned, pulling at the nest Damon had created. His entire body ached as though he'd been in a battle. He huffed, throwing the blanket to the floor in annoyance. He'd told Damon no nest this time. Clearly Damon had done it anyway. He rubbed his eyes, trying to recall the last few days. Had it been days? He wasn't sure. He opened his eyes and looked to his bedside clock.

"5 days." He shook his head.

Five days of his life lost to some biological urge he didn't want. Great. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, finding his legs a little shaky. He moved to the bathroom and stopped dead when he saw his reflection. He stared horrified as he traced bruises and dried blood over his body, reaching out to touch his muscles and check them. He looked grey and gaunt too, had he fed at all during it? His head felt as though it was full of cotton. He turned on the taps and splashed some cold water on his face.

He leaned forwards, resting his head against the mirror when he recalled a flash. Damon had had him in the small bathroom, bent over the sink like this. He looked up at his reflection again pointedly, as if he could blame his reflection for it rather than himself. He'd failed. They'd had full penetrative sex despite all of their meditation and damn-tea drinking! He lashed out at a glass of water sitting next to the taps, smashing it against the wall as he tried to calm down.

Wait. How had they done that and managed to separate? He reached behind and traced over his entrance. It hurt and he hissed in surprise. He brought his fingers back to look at them and groaned when he saw dried blood there. He looked at his reflection again as he thought back. He'd needed something inside so desperately and he didn't want it to be Damon. He'd tried to use his fingers and when they couldn't give him the relief he needed, he'd embarrassingly tried the handle end of a plastic back scrub. It had torn him and hurt. What an idiot.

He huffed and looked at his reflection in disgust, before slamming his fist into it, shattering it too. He panted, his eyes filling with tears. His knuckles bled and he closed his eyes for a few minutes as he tried to breathe. He turned the taps back on and washed his hands. He'd have to clean all of this up or Vida could get hurt. Vida…

His eyes snapped open and he gasped, whirling around back into the bedroom. Where was she? Her bassinet was there but she wasn't!

"Stupid brain!" He pulled at his own hair as he tried to recall what was going on.

Damon, Damon had caught him in the bathroom and he'd taken her. He must have given her to Constance. Yes. That's what he must have done because he came back and they'd joined, except they hadn't fully. Stefan waltzed through to the den and looked around. The den still smelled of their fluids, their rug lying in a tangled mess beside the fireplace. He stepped over it and went to the small bathroom. There was blood on the floor, on the side of the bath, on the sink…It looked as though someone had been attacked in here.

He shook his head looking at the back scrubber. How had Damon gotten them back to bed if they'd been fused together? That would have been impossible. He frowned and looked to the blood spots on the floor. They had joined, he remembered weeping pathetically when Damon had filled him like he'd begged for. He clenched his jaw. Damon had pulled out, despite the milking though. He nodded, remembering that relief. It must have torn Stefan's entrance more. Probably why he was still sore and tender there. He shook his head sadly. At least they'd separated. They should practise trying to do it without ripping his entrance though. The blood on the floor must be from when that had happened.

He should clean this place up, but he felt too depleted to do so. He retreated back to the bedroom and jumped into the shower. Damon must be with Vida. He wanted just to get to them and never talk about this failure again. As he dressed, he nodded at his next plan. Nisha said that heats were natural and Klaus said they were necessary to keep his body healthy – well that was based on the need for the part of his body that was 'alive' needing to be kept healthy and such. He didn't need that. They had Vida. They didn't want any more babies, so they should just let his reproductive system die or whatever. Have it removed? But would it grow back like the rest of his vampire physiology? The reproductive parts were alive so maybe they wouldn't re-grow. Then again, it was the blood running through his body that animated and caused healing and it now flowed through those organs.

He huffed, buttoning up his jeans. End game from now on, in whatever way was necessary to make it happen, was to prevent ever having a heat again. This would be the last one. He'd made up his mind. He didn't want this. He'd tried to accept it, but it was clear he couldn't handle it. It had to stop. Perhaps if he could find a witch, a spell could be created.

He pulled a shirt over his head and stuck his feet into a pair of his converse trainers. He couldn't get why Damon would leave him here alone and unprotected. The last heat, Damon had barely left his body once they'd initiated their mating together. Stefan had been the prize, the revered and now…well obviously if he wasn't putting out, Damon wasn't as interested.

He paused when he thought on that, his chest tightening. No. That wasn't it and that wasn't fair. Damon had proved time and time again how much he loved him. He sighed, feeling tears fill his eyes again. Damn werewolf hormone crap!

"Then why aren't you here?" He whispered to himself.

He swallowed down confused feelings of guilt and longing and headed out of the lodge. Whatever the reason, they needed to talk. They'd barely had any time together these days. It was as though they were flatmates who shared a baby. Damon never used to leave the bed while he was asleep. Now it was commonplace.

He stepped outside the lodge and inhaled deeply. The winter air was blowing in and he could smell the change. He looked around, expecting to see some of the wolves hard at work as normal, but there was no one around. That was odd. He moved over towards Constance's lodge. He frowned, looking around as he waited for her to answer the door. He heard no indication of movement and chapped again, calling her name. The hairs on the back of his neck began to stand and he gulped down anxiety. This was almost like his nightmare. He was about to knock louder again, when the door finally opened to reveal a very tired and pale Constance.

"You ok?" Stefan asked, frowning.

"Stefan. You're awake again. Thank god." Constance sighed tiredly and welcomed him in.

"What's wrong?" He closed the door behind him and turned to her, his anxiety increasing.

"Sit down." Constance said and he swallowed again and stood nailed to the spot. "Ian was supposed to be with you when you woke up. I'm sorry. You're probably confused."

"What's going on?" He urged.

She sat down, wincing at the effort to do and held her stomach. He reached out instinctively to help her settle back into her cushion and she smiled gratefully.

"Thanks, your little one has taken it out of me."

"Where is she?" He asked, looking around for her bassinet and she shook her head.

"She's with Isabella. She's been a handful."

"What? Why…where's…why hasn't Damon got her now?" He frowned and sat down next to her.

"Damon is in no shape to. That's why Ian was supposed to explain what's going on."

Stefan paled.

"Stefan, Damon…he's rutting." She said and searched his face for comprehension. "Do you know what that means?"

"What?" His head spun.

"With wolves, the female has a heat and the male has a rut…"

"What are talking about? Where is he?" He stood up, adrenaline beginning to fill his veins.

"Stefan, stay calm. He's in good hands ok? Your heat just…for some reason it didn't…" She struggled and he began to pace. "A rut is his version of your heat. When you're mated and one of you goes into heat, the rut begins to coincide and as you join, both are satisfied and you become one. For some reason, Damon's rut has continued and you became unconscious…"

"Unconscious?" He gasped. "I wasn't unconscious I was just sleeping!" He defended, horrified and she sighed and rubbed her stomach.

"Stefan your heat dissipated two days ago. Since then you've been unconscious. None of us get why and Damon's fallen off the wagon."

"What are you talking about!?" He snapped, irritated and scared.

He shook his head, making up his mind to go find Damon and Vida and just figure out what was happening, when he looked around at her again and paused. She looked ill. Why did she look so ill?

"He fell off the wagon how?"

"Stefan…" she sighed.

"How? What did he..?" His eyes widened. "Did he hurt someone?"

She rubbed her stomach again.

"We got to him just in time."

"Who?" Stefan demanded.

"John. He attacked him while they were all building."

"Oh my god." Stefan croaked.

"You're both stronger than we realised. It took a lot of us to get him under control."

"Is everyone..?" he could barely speak for fear that Damon had killed someone.

Please no. They'd come so far from those days and these wolves were just trying to help them.

"Is John..?"

"He'll live." She gave a small smile and he held his chest as he blinked a tear down his cheek.

"This is my fault." He realised.

"No. You two aren't full wolves. No one could have known this was going to happen." She consoled and he clenched his fists.

"Where is he?"

"He's in the woods with the others. They're trying to help him through it."

"I have to see him." Stefan reached for the handle again and she grunted at the effort to sit up straight.

"Stefan, I think you should give him time. He's not himself and the others understand what a rut is like. They'll take care of him."

"He's mine." Stefan said confused and irritated. "I'll know what he needs."

"Stefan…" She sighed again and he swallowed. "He'll hurt you."

She stared at him pointedly and he studied her face in disbelief.

"You don't know him." Stefan pulled the door open and stumbled out, sniffing the air.

_Damon, where are you? I'm coming!_

He channelled and waited, tuning in his ears. There was no response from Damon. He began to walk towards the woods, sniffing the air – strange how he'd begun to use these new senses without even realising they weren't vampire gifts anymore. He caught a hint of a scent and he bristled. Blood, Damon's blood. What the fuck where the wolves doing to him? Were they having to beat him to keep him down? Were they angry that he'd gone for one of their own?

He broke into a run, heading in the direction, growing more concerned the nearer he got as he heard sounds of struggling and fighting. Oh god. He blurred to a clearing and halted abruptly, staring at the scene before him.

Damon was chained to a tree and lashing out as the other wolves circled and dove for him. Damon was bleeding and growling, his face full vampire as he grabbed for them with the little amount of movement the chains permitted. How was this helping him? Stefan saw red.

He let out a roar as he bore his fangs.

_MINE!_

These wolves were going to die for this, for ever touching his mate. He'd spray the forest with their limbs! The wolves turned around in shocked surprise to see him there and rallied for an assault.

"Stefan! Wait!" The wolf Ian put his hands up to halt him but everything went into slow motion.

He ran at them, snarling and throwing them away into the trees like toy soldiers as he fought his way to Damon. They all fell to a heap and jumped up again, trying to get a hold of him. Their speed was nothing in comparison to his though and he easily tossed them aside, slamming a few of them into tree trunks and onto the wood piles surrounding the building work. He ran towards Damon to break the chains, when three of them jumped on top of him and tried to bite his scruff. He flailed wildly, biting a few arms and legs until there was blood everywhere and screaming.

"Stop! Stop!" He heard a woman screaming but he didn't care.

_Damon, mate, love, protect, defend…!_

"Stefan don't make us hurt you!" Ian shouted as they all tackled Stefan to the ground. "We're trying to help you god damn it!"

"Get off of me!" Stefan growled angrily.

He felt a punch to the mouth and he gasped and their hold grew tighter. What were they going to do? Chain him up too? He panted, faking exhaustion and relaxed his muscles to trick them.

"Calm, calm. We're helping Stefan." Ian panted too and tried to coo. "Let me explain."

Stefan waited for a few seconds, then he made his move, using all of his strength he catapulted all of them into the air with a thud and jumped up, turning to face them all in challenge.

"I'll kill anyone who touches him." He warned coldly.

"Stefan, come closer." Ian said wide eyed.

"Come here you idiot vamp!" Another huffed annoyed as he cradled what looked like a broken arm.

"Stefan, come here now!" Ian shouted and Stefan opened his mouth to laugh at them when he felt a chain around his throat.

"Stefan!" Ian shouted in fear as Stefan was pulled backwards sharply, gagging and coughing. "Shit! Get the dart gun, now!"

Stefan fell back on to the ground, grabbing the chain in confusion when he saw Damon towering over him, his mouth foaming.

"Dam…." He choked, coughing and Damon growled and pulled him further into him as he knelt down.

"Hurry! The gun!"

_Damon it's me._

Stefan channelled frantically, seeing no recognition in Damon's vampire eyes at all.

_Mate!_

"Mine." Damon growled in a terrifying low, deadly voice and Stefan gasped as Damon grabbed him and pinned him down on the ground, climbing on top.

Stefan's head spun as Damon slammed him into the dirt, getting some mud in his mouth and up his nose. He didn't understand what was happening! Damon removed the chain but bit painfully into his scruff and he screamed in surprise. This wasn't the gentle way that Damon had done this before. Even when he'd been losing his mind when Bonnie had told him he might be pregnant, Damon's bite hadn't hurt as much as this. Blood flowed down his neck into the mud and he cried in pain and tried to shake him off but Damon's only response was to growl and bite down harder.

_Pain, Damon! I love you! Mate! Pain!_

Damon removed one of the hands holding Stefan down and began to tear at his clothing and Stefan panicked realising what he meant to do. He was going to have Stefan right here, held down and in front of these wolves.

"Damon stop! You'll kill him!" Someone shouted and there was chaos all around.

Stefan gagged as he felt the bones in his neck begin to crack and Damon freed his entrance, by pulling his jeans down.

_No, Damon stop. Please!_

Damon growled and slipped his fingers inside of his entrance when suddenly there was a shot and Damon fell full force on top of him. Stefan lay panting with his face in the dirt.

"Stefan are you ok?" Ian asked, suddenly at his side, holding what looked like a tranquiliser gun.

Stefan couldn't respond, his neck and throat hurt so badly. He squeezed his eyes closed and let out a sob instead.

"I'm so sorry this had to happen Stefan. We'll fix it, don't worry." Ian reassured as the wolves lifted Damon's unconscious body up from the ground and carried him away.

Ian helped Stefan to his feet shakily and Stefan did up his jeans again in disbelief.

"Where are they taking him?" He croaked, his throat raw.

Ian checked his neck was healing and pressed a compress pad onto it.

"There's a den we use for the moon coming. He'll be secure and safe there."

Stefan's eyes filled as he nodded.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there when you woke. This shouldn't have happened." Ian shook his head. "Come on. Let's get you sorted."

Ian put his arm around Stefan's shoulder and guided him away, when Stefan stopped.

"No. I have to feed him. Figure out what's wrong with him."

"We know what's wrong Stefan. He's rutting. I tried to help him, to talk about it but he wouldn't have it. Neither of you are listening. It's time you start or you'll kill each other."

Stefan huffed in disbelief, but he could tell from the look on Ian's face that he was deadly serious.

"Come on, he'll be out for a few hours and there's a certain little madam who won't eat or sleep without her parents." Ian gave a small smile and Stefan's eyes widened.

"Vida."

"Come on." Ian guided him again as Stefan shook himself off.

Had he seriously completely forgotten that his daughter was in the care of some other wolf he didn't know somewhere in this camp? He shook his head as they walked.

"What Nisha says about your connection seems to be true."

Stefan raised his eyebrows in query.

"Vida knows something's up. She's been crying for days and she won't eat anything." Ian sighed frustrated.

Stefan gulped in grief over that. Had Damon been like this since they'd last been together physically? Had Vida been left alone without either of them for days, crying and afraid? It was everything that he'd feared would happen.

"You couldn't have known this was going to happen. A rut normally dissipates when the heat ends. I guess your vampire bodies haven't synchronized with it yet."

"What is a rut?" Stefan asked anxiously.

"He's just insane with lust and drive. I've had a few, all young guys do when they don't have a partner or when they have their first mating season as teenagers. It makes you feel angry, territorial and confused. Damon's vampire nature thrown in, has caused him to be really dangerous with the confusion."

Stefan sighed in grief again.

"Normally when it happens to one of the pack, a bit of friendly combat helps to release it gradually. We often fight and exercise and it helps with our pecking order."

"Pecking order?" Stefan squinted at him and Ian nodded.

"The order in the pack. When new males rut, they fight for dominance and we can tell whether they'll be alpha material, whether they'll be leaders." Ian guided him up the steps to his lodge and opened the door.

Stefan paused a little unsure. He'd never been into this lodge before. Ian smiled welcomingly and patted his back as he ushered him in. Stefan walked into the living room and relaxed instantly. They had a log fire burning and incense. Ian guided him over to Vida's bassinet and he looked in. She was asleep but had clearly been crying and exhausted herself. She had one of Stefan's t-shirts balled up in her hands.

"Baby." He sighed apologetically. "I'm so sorry."

Isabella came out from the other room and rubbed Stefan's back.

"She'll be ok. It's you two we have to worry about." Ian said and Isabella handed Stefan a warm cup of liquid.

He smiled in thanks and sniffed it. It smelled like whiskey but not. Not wanting to seem ungrateful he took a sip. It burned down his throat like whiskey but there was ginger and honey too. It was actually quite nice. He sat down next to the bassinet and drank some more.

Isabella was inspecting Ian's wounds and Stefan gulped hard. He'd hurt all of them. Not critically but enough to have broken a few bones.

"I'm sorry. I thought…"

"It's ok. If I'd walked in on someone chaining Isabella up…" Ian sighed and shook his head. "We heal quickly."

"You were chaining him up to stop him from hurting you?" Stefan surmised and Isabella sat down and shook her head.

"His only interest was in you Stefan. In this state, a strong alpha male can injure a partner, even kill them by accident. His rutting is so intense we knew it was the only way to keep you safe."

"He wanted to hurt me?" Stefan swallowed in disbelief.

"No, he doesn't see it like that. It's hard to describe." Ian said and sat down, taking Isabella's hand in his. "If I was rutting this bad, all I'd be concerned about is making sure that my mate stays mine – that no one can take her from me. To do that I'd fight anyone who even looked at her. My instinct would be to keep her with me, even if that meant by force to ensure she wasn't compromised by another guy. I'd hurt her to make sure she knew she was mine and to stay, but I wouldn't know my own strength."

Isabella patted his hand and turned to Stefan as all the colour drained from his face.

"It's a primal time in the cycle Stefan. Remember in your heat, you're one thought was to have Damon inside you? Be with you and scent you?" She asked and he grimaced at the admission but nodded.

"Well the intensity of that feeling should be mirrored in his cycle, but something's gone wrong."

"It's my fault." Stefan whispered. "I wouldn't let him. I wouldn't let him inside me. I wanted to get through this without that."

"Why?" Isabella frowned.

"For Vida. I wanted to know that we wouldn't get joined together and not be able to look after her." He sighed as his eyes filled with tears. "I thought it would work."

"No one's here to judge you Stefan. You guys have been through a horrific ordeal." Ian commented.

They all fell into silence as Stefan composed himself and stared into their fire, listening to the cracking of the flames.

"He'll get through this Stefan, it'll just take some time. We know what he's feeling so we can help him." Ian eventually said softly.

"What can I do?" Stefan looked over at him.

"Best if you stay here. If you're there his urge to claim you and breed will block out his other thoughts."

"We've never been separated like this. We…we share everything, every change happens to us together. Always together."

"You're wolves now too." Isabella reminded and he hung his head. "Stay with us, with Vida. Hopefully she'll eat now." She sighed and looked over at the bassinet.

"If I had let him be with me…" Stefan struggled to finish, "Would this have happened?"

Both Ian and Isabella looked at each other. That was his answer then. He gave a stiff nod.

"Because I wouldn't share the heat with him, he's suffering."

"We don't know that, so much about your bodies is different and he is quite…testy normally." Ian tried to joke.

"What if I let him have me now?" He looked him straight in the eye and Ian shook his head.

"Stefan you saw him today. He'd tear at you. He could serious hurt you and not realise it. He'd be focussed on breeding only, not love."

Stefan frowned.

"But I thought that this was about mating, bonding for life…"

"It is." Isabella nodded, but Ian interrupted and leant forward.

"While he's rutting like this Stefan, all he'll care about is sex and breeding. He will hurt you and he'll never forgive himself afterwards if he does. We just have to let him vent this out and then he'll be back to normal ok?"

"But…"

"No Stefan. Go in there and he won't forgive himself for what he does to you. Do you understand? I know you're a lot harder to kill and you're a match for him physically, but trust me, you don't want to make him feel the guilt afterwards." Ian's words made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

"You talk about it, as if you've experienced it before." Stefan said softly, flicking his eyes over to Isabella who was sitting rather uncomfortably.

Ian exhaled and nodded, squeezing his mate's hand and looking down at the floor for a few moments.

"My first time with a partner I went into rut. We were just kids – barely 14 and neither of us knew what was happening."

Stefan sat silently, hoping he'd continue.

"Problem was, that she wasn't in heat and I was."

"I thought you went into rut when the other went into heat."

"Yeah, but it just so happened that her older sister was in heat and mating with her partner at that time. We were on a family vacation and the smell of her heat just got to me. I didn't understand and Charlene and I – we didn't know what to do. She tried to help me, scenting me and offering to mate but we were so young. Her body wasn't ready."

He paused and Stefan leaned forward in interest.

"We tried to have sex, but we were both virgins and my rut just took over. I barely remember what happened actually. I felt drunk almost. I woke up a few days later with a wrecked room and Charlene hurt." He looked at Stefan his eyes filled with tears. "She knew it wasn't my fault really. I couldn't control myself, but she couldn't ever be with me after that. She had to go to the hospital. She wasn't better for weeks and there was internal damage from when I was…" He shook his head. "I could have ruined her chances of having children or worse."

Ian stood up and wiped his eyes discreetly, turning his back and putting another log onto the fire.

"I couldn't look her in the eye again. I left the pack and never went back." He said.

Stefan sat back as his brain absorbed the info.

"The best thing you can do for Damon, is leave him alone right now."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 TH

Damon grunted as he awoke. Where the hell was he? He sat up and felt the chains securing him. He pulled at them in confusion. He looked around. He was in some kind of underground bunker from the looks of it. There were food supplies and blankets, bottles of water and a makeshift bed.

"Stefan?" He called out, feeling a little fear prickle his skin.

He stood up, testing how far the chains would allow him to move around. He had a little room but couldn't reach the door way. He pulled hard, trying to pull the bolts from the wall but they wouldn't budge. He huffed, his stomach rumbling. Something was wrong. Why was he here? How did he even get here? He pulled harshly at his restraints again and then noticed the walls. This wasn't a metal bunker, it had been carved in from stone walls. He must really be underground then. He paused as he scrutinized the rock. Perhaps he could pound his way out of here, or at least pound enough of the wall away to loosen the bolts. Then he saw the markings and he stared at them hard. Claw marks, lots of them as though someone had already tried that idea but had distinctively longer finger nails than a human. This was where the wolf chained themselves at the monthly moon cycle.

His eyes widened and he looked around again. Why would they chain him in here? Did he change into a wolf? No one knew if they could now that they kind of were wolves too. Was it even time for the moon and if it was, why was he the only one in here? They must have to be separated at the moon time or they would fight and injure each other kept down here. He nodded at the sense of that. But then, where was Stefan if he was locked down here? Was Stefan locked in another similar cell?

The indignity of that made him growl. Stefan wouldn't be locked away from him like this. He better not be chained like he was or he'd kill a few wolves where their families slept! He growled, pulling at the chains again when he realised that if he and Stefan were chained down here separately, it meant Vida was on her own with the wolves. They had his baby!

He panted and began to tear at the chains wildly, using all of his strength to pull at the wall. They wouldn't come away easy. This place was designed for that. He continued to pant in mounting fear and aggression, tiring himself as he kicked and pounded his fists into the rock surrounding the bolts.

"Damon."

He spun around panting at the sound of his name and let his veins protrude. It was one of the wolves. He growled in warning as the guy opened the gate in the doorway. Damon studied its hinges as the guy entered cautiously. It looked old but well reinforced. If he could get out of the chains he was sure he could burst the hinges and just throw the door the hell out of the way.

"Easy friend. I just brought you some food ok?" The wolf said and Damon took a step back, watching him and growling.

"Where am I?" He growled.

"You're safe. Just try and relax ok? Everything's ok."

"Where is Stefan?!" He snapped his fangs and the wolf tensed defensively.

"He's safe. Your family are safe. You just need to ride this out."

"Ride what out?!"

"This is your rut my friend. It'll be over soon. Shout, scream, beat the walls…let it out."

"What?" Damon frowned in confusion.

"It's _your_ heat Damon. Without a partner, you just need to vent it ok? We'll be on hand to help. Just call if you need us. Sleep, eat and exercise and it'll fade."

"Where's Stefan?" He demanded. "I want Stefan!"

"He's at home healing friend. You need to trust us. Stefan can't be with you right now."

"I'm not your friend wolfboy!" He growled aggressively and moved towards him.

The wolf stood his ground calmly.

"You're still in it deep. Can't you feel it? That urge you have to rip my head off and find Stefan. You feel it?"

Damon laughed mockingly.

"That's every day!" He mocked and the wolf bristled.

"You'll actually do it if I let you out though and that's the difference isn't it?" The wolf challenged and Damon snorted at him, flexing his muscles. "You're dangerous. This urge you have in you right now will devastate you unless you stay here till it ends."

"Let me the fuck out of here!" Damon shouted and bore his fangs.

"So you can try and rape your mate again?!" The wolf spat and Damon paused in disbelief. "Yeah, that's right _friend."_ The wolf mocked. "I don't like you much either if we're being honest. You almost killed my brother John the other day because your mate was hanging around stinking of his heat and tempted him!"

Damon growled at the mention of Stefan's would-be admirer.

"I couldn't care less if you starve to death out here. You'll always be a vampire to me, no matter what colour your eyes change!"

"Bill! You ok down there?" Another voice sounded from above ground.

It sounded near, so they couldn't be too far underground then. Damon stared him out.

"I'm fine!" The wolf shouted and then turned back to Damon who was panting and shaking with the urge to make a move on him. "Fortunately for you, I don't think Stefan's such a bad guy and I don't want to see him torn apart to satisfy your rut."

"I'd never hurt him. He's mine." Damon seethed.

"You'll remember after the rut and that'll be punishment enough. Until then…" the wolf tossed him a couple of bottles of Stefan's blood from a bag on the ground.

Damon ignored them and stared the wolf out confidently.

"Shut up and deal with it. We'll look after your mate."

Damon huffed in rage and watched as the wolf turned to retreat.

"Let me out of here! Let me out!" He screamed, blurring to the very edge of where the chains would allow as the wolf locked the gate again and watched him. "Stefan!"

The wolf shook his head, almost sympathetically and left as Damon pulled at the chains once more.

"Stefan!" Damon dropped to his knees and screamed, his eyes filling with tears.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Stefan paced the room, trying to think of what to do. The wolves had made it clear that it would harm Damon further if he should go to him, but it went against every instinct he had. He felt like his brain was being torn apart in the battle of wills. Vida awoke crying already and he moved to her bassinet and looked in on her. They all hoped that she'd finally settle now that he was awake and she could see him.

"Hey angel." He cooed and she looked up at him and reached with her hands.

He scooped her up and kissed her cheeks one at a time, bouncing her slightly.

"Dadda's here. Everything's ok my baby girl."

She lay her face into the skin of his neck but continued to cry softly. He stroked her back and scented her head gently. She'd been sleeping with one of his t-shirts for the comfort his scent brought, so hopefully holding her would settle her now. She continued to cry and he moved over to the bed and curled up. She sniffled and he stroked her tears away, frowning.

"It's ok angel. I'm back. I'm back now." He whispered and lay her amongst the pillows as he removed his shirt.

Skin on skin contact would be better for bonding. He pulled her back to lay her face on his chest and patted her back. She sniffled but opened her mouth to suck at his skin.

"See? It's dadda." He stroked the hairs on her head as she hiccup and ran her tongue over his skin.

Strange to realise but now he understood that this was her way to scent. She was getting bigger and more intelligent quickly and she saw that the wolves and he and Damon all scented each other for comfort. Now she was learning to do it too, in her own baby way.

"You like dadda's skin shirt?" He joked, rubbing her back and swallowing down longing for Damon.

She began to fuss and sniffle again and he tried to sing to her. She was clearly still stressed and confused.

"You must be hungry angel. Come on. You'll feel better." He cooed and gently placed her into his neck.

She sucked on his skin there for a few seconds before beginning to cry again. He sighed frustrated and sat up, holding her out so he could see her face. Her little vampire eyes were showing, so she must be hungry. Why wouldn't she eat?

"What is it baby?" He cooed and she closed her eyes and cried, channelling an image of Damon.

He sighed sadly and nodded.

"I know, I miss him too. He's sick baby. He'll be home soon." He cooed but she just grew more distressed.

This was what Isabella and Constance had been dealing with for days. Wasn't he enough? Why couldn't he comfort his own baby? He exhaled, feeling tears fill his eyes and sat up fully, cradling her. She choked on her cries a few times and he walked the floor with her, doing the swooshing sounds she normally liked and trying to interest her in her toys. Nothing seemed to work and he took her through to the lounge and sat her in a bouncy chair Isabella had bequeathed. Isabella promised that this chair would help, that it'd give her some way to tire herself out at least, in a fashion where he didn't have to watch her constantly. He buckled her in and she sniffled, her eyes wide with tears as he moved around, looking for the baby bottle someone had given Damon.

Clearly feeding from the vein wasn't working with her and if what the wolves had told him was correct, then she hadn't eaten for three days. He had to do something. He fretted, searching around Damon's chair for it as she cried on, wailing now as she couldn't see him. He finally found it and scrutinized it. Normally humans needed to disinfect these things, but Vida was no human. He stood up and she calmed a little when she saw he hadn't left.

He looked at her deliberating. If he used this bottle without washing it, would she be ok? There was only one and he wasn't sure how to disinfect it. She looked as though she was starving and couldn't wait. He sniffed the bottle and decided to lick it himself. He cleaned it as thoroughly as he could and bit into his wrist, pouring the blood straight from the vein, where it would be fresh. She calmed a little as she watched, hiccupping.

"It's coming baby." He assured, watching as the little bottle filled to a sufficient level.

He licked his wrist as it healed and sealed the plastic tit on the bottle.

_Please let her eat. Please._

He squeezed his eyes closed in silent prayer and moved to her again, lifting her from the seat and sitting in the rocking chair. He held her in his elbow and she looked up at him, her veins tingling.

"Feed, lady impossible. Do it for dadda." He cooed and placed the bottle to her lips.

At first she struggled, crying again and then he tried something different. He summoned an image of Damon feeding her, sitting right here in this chair and channelled it to her. She gurned a little but let him pop the tit into her mouth. He rocked gently and felt his whole body relax as she finally sucked on it and swallowed.

"That's my girl." He cooed and smiled down at her.

She held the bottle with her hands and sighed heavily, her eyes closing as she drank. He tried not to let his mind wander too much in case she was affected by his feelings but it was hard. Why did she want Damon so much more? Why had it taken so much to get her to feed? He sat his head back and exhaled. Had Damon been doing most of the feeding lately? Had he did the daddy bit a little more than him? Is that why she wanted Damon? He shook his head. They normally did everything quite equally. There hadn't really been an extended time when Damon had done the feeding more, so that she should associate it with him. Plus she had been cared for by the wolves recently, who'd been feeding her too. So what was the deal?

She began to gurn again and he looked down in surprise. She let the tit slip from her mouth and gave a cry again.

"Come on Vida, please." He begged and she turned her face into his chest, drooling some blood back out as she pressed her face into the warmth of his skin.

He rocked her and rubbed the bottle near her lips again.

"Come on, you need to eat my baby girl. Please eat for dadda."

She choked again and as she opened her mouth he stuck the tit in again. She tried to gurn around it, but he rocked and began to sing softly to her, scenting her head again and she began to suck from the bottle once more. He watched her with focus this time, rocking her when she seemed to stop sucking and whispering comforting things to her. She eventually drank enough to satisfy him and fell asleep with the tit still in her mouth. He sat watching her as he removed it and set it down. She seemed to be dreaming, jerking every now and then and breathing quickly. He wondered what she was dreaming about. With her not eating for so long, she would probably sleep most of the day. He had to make sure he could feed her at every opportunity.

Isabella had suggested human food but he still didn't think she was ready for that. He wasn't. He had no idea about food. Perhaps that was his real motivator to keep her drinking blood. He did eat occasionally when he had to appear human, but he had no idea what babies ate. He frowned on that. It wasn't her fault that he didn't know. Maybe she did need something more. She did grow after all. Perhaps that's why she was crying? He would be a fool not to consider that a possibility. She was technically 2 months old now. From what he'd been told, babies normally began to eat food a few months older than she was. Still, although small in stature, she was clearly progressing mentally, quicker. Isabella reckoned that she was more like a child of six months. Her strength and sped were increasing exponentially, as she could hold her own head up now. She wasn't far from sitting too.

Maybe he should try some of Isabella's baby food. He bit his lip and nodded. Next time she woke, he'd do that. He carefully took her back into the bedroom and lay her in her bassinet. She let her hands fall to the side of her head and sighed deeply. He tucked her in with her blanket and lifted the bassinet. He needed to know how Damon was.

He headed out of the lodge, looking in on her to make sure she stayed asleep as he walked over to Nisha's lodge.

Nisha let him in and took the bassinet from him, placing it beside the fire to keep her warm. She enfolded Stefan in her arms when she turned around and he held her gratefully.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered into his shoulder.

He gave a weak smile.

"I know this must seem like hell on earth for you, but this does happen Stefan. It's not your fault. Males rut sometimes." She patted his knee as they sat down.

"This seems so much worse." He gulped and she shook her head.

"No, I've witnessed some like this. The main problem is Damon's strength. He's unmatched by any of the alpha's here and that makes it difficult for them to help him in the usual way."

He nodded. Vampire strength and speed where gifts the wolves didn't share.

"Normally a few days of jumping around and tussling with the others is enough to cure a rut but Damon's too strong." She sighed sadly. "He'll kill them by accident and we can't take the chance."

"I understand." He agreed.

"How is she?" Nisha looked to Vida.

"I don't know." He sighed. "She finally fed but she wouldn't take it from me. I had to give her a bottle and even then…she's still crying and stressed."

"She knows Damon's suffering probably. Babies know somehow." Nisha gave a comforting smile.

"I thought she'd be better with me here now." He gulped.

"The fact that you are here alone only indicates that there is something wrong Stefan. It's not about you."

"I guess." He said, but didn't believe it.

Vida gurned and moved in her bassinet and Stefan blurred to her immediately as Nisha held her chest in amazement at his speed.

"Sssssh angel. Dadda's here." He cooed and tucked back in again.

She opened her eyes sleepily and frowned.

"Dadda's here."

_Love, dadda, my baby girl._

He channelled and she sighed unhappily and closed her eyes again. He stroked her head and for a few seconds as she gurned sleepily.

"Why doesn't she want me?" He whispered in grief. "Why can't I settle her? It as though she knows this is my fault."

Nisha joined him and put her arm around him.

"She's a baby Stefan and it most certainly isn't your fault."

"The others think so. I can see it in their faces. Even Isabella thought so because I wouldn't let Damon inside of me." He said unhappily and Nisha pulled him to sit down again.

"Listen to me, normal heats and ruts coincide yes." She admitted and he hung his head. "But, you are not wolves. I'm assuming that although you didn't join in the normal way, you both still achieved…you both still…"

"Yeah." He nodded and she exhaled.

"Then that should still have worked. A lot of wolves only consider full penetration as mating sex but that's nonsense. If you are together and connecting through scenting, kissing, sleeping together without sex but still having orgasms together, then that is what your biology demands. Ok, yes, full sex is better and ends the heat quicker, but it isn't the only way."

"Really?"

"Yes, do you think we let every young teenager copulate?" She raised an eyebrow and he chewed his lip as he thought on that. "We may be wolves but we are still human. Sex is still as big an issue for us as other humans and we don't start having sex until we understand our bodies and we're old enough to understand what it means. Think of this as your puberty if you will."

"You think it's the vampire part that's made this happen?"

"Honestly? I have no idea, but I know that your bodies have been changed by magic, not nature and that means the cards are off the table with you. I should have seen it in him when he came for Vida the other day."

"He did?" Stefan tensed.

"Yeah. He thought Constance had her and he was moody and aggressive. I should have realised there was something wrong. Constance knew somehow and she refused to tell him where Vida was until you woke up. He wasn't happy."

"That doesn't sound out of the ordinary." He gave a small smirk.

"He went to look for her and came across here where I was treating John for his chest. As soon as he caught John's smell he went for him. I could see the rut then."

Stefan swallowed. He'd broken at least one of John's ribs in the chaos a few days previous.

"Did he hurt you?"

"No, he wasn't interested in me. John in his mind was a risk to you, so he flipped. Thankfully Ian arrived with Bill and they managed to get him out of here. Vida's small but she saw what happened." Nisha looked to the bassinet again. "All she would have understood is that Damon was upset and angry and being forcibly removed from her. That's why she wants him Stefan. Not because she doesn't want you."

Stefan hung his head and swallowed painfully.

"This is everything I didn't want for her." He croaked.

"She'll be fine. Once Damon is better, you'll be together and she won't remember this happened."

"How do I help him get better? There must be something I can do. Something you can do? A herb or something?" He grabbed her hands and she sighed.

"I've been trying to figure something out. I've prepared something that might make him physically weaker so the others can help him fight it out."

"Not vervain." He shook his head.

"No, not exactly. There is a root in the vervain family that might help without making him ill and hurting him. I've made a small amount of it."

"If they all fight, they won't hurt him?" He asked anxiously.

"Oh they will and he them, because that is what this is for. Ruts aren't just about the need to procreate, they are about defending what's yours and that's a primal instinct we all have, even as humans. If Damon doesn't feel like they're really fighting with him, like they are a threat, then he'll tire of them and won't respond. This has to be real, but in a way that his vampire abilities don't kill us." She warned and he nodded.

"I guess he wouldn't want to be coddled anyway."

A knock sounded at the door and Vida gurned again. Stefan went to her, cooing and Nisha answered the door to Ian, Bill and John. Vida began to cry full on and he lifted her from the bassinet, bouncing and kissing her head as the wolves entered the lounge and looked on at him. He turned to face them and saw John.

John avoided his eyes but gave him a polite nod. Stefan's stomach burned in guilt. Ian talked with Nisha as they went into another room and left Stefan unsure of what to say to the others.

"How is he?" He asked as Vida buried her face into his neck and continued to gurn and squirm.

"Same." Bill said and looked at Vida sadly. "How's the little one doing?"

Stefan swallowed sadly and he nodded in acknowledgement.

"It'll be over soon. I've never known one to last more than three days." John said, still avoiding his eyes.

Vida burst into a wail and kicked her legs against Stefan's chest. Stefan bounced her and scented her head. Bill and John shuffled uncomfortably as Stefan struggled to calm the now screaming infant.

"May I?" John asked after a few minutes and Stefan looked at him in surprise, before nodding.

He handed Vida over to him and she looked up at John and calmed a little.

"Hey now. What's all of this about?" He cooed and she hiccupped and searched his face.

Stefan sat down and pulled at his hair as he sighed and Bill reached into his pocket and pulled a piece of fabric from it, coming to John's side and cooing at her too. She stopped crying and Stefan looked over at them in surprise.

"Smell your daddy huh? Yeah?" John cooed and Stefan realised they had given her a piece of Damon's shirt.

He stood up and moved over to them, watching as she sucked on it, holding it in both hands. Bill looked at Stefan in sympathy.

"Smells are the key. Just keep her around his smell. My little ones get testy when I'm working away sometimes and as long as they have something with my scent, they stay a little calmer. It's a wolf thing." He said and Stefan nodded at the logic and watched as Vida pulled the cloth from her mouth and stared at it.

"It's always hardest on the little ones." John commented and Bill nodded.

Ian and Nisha returned from the other room looking confident and they all looked to them.

"Got a plan?" Bill asked and Ian nodded.

"This should make him weaker so the bonding is fair." Ian held up a bottle of liquid and Stefan nodded at Nisha.

"He's still cunning though, we'll have to try it out as a test before we give it a go." John warned and they all nodded.

Stefan tensed uncomfortably.

"Let's do this and get him home to his family." Ian said.

John returned Vida to Stefan's arms, now content as she sucked Damon's shirt and Stefan exhaled, frowning. This was crazy. He shouldn't be left here to sit idly by as Damon fought these wolves. Damon was his. He should be the one to resolve this. As they left, each one of them gave Stefan a pat on the shoulder and it made him feel worse. He was the woman in this scenario and he didn't like it one bit. He clenched his jaw annoyed and Nisha exhaled and caught his attention.

"They don't mean to make you feel undermined Stefan. This is a just the way a pack works. If they let you put yourself in danger then Damon won't forgive them or himself. You also have a little one who needs you and you can't put Damon before her."

"What if this doesn't work?"

"Then he'll probably wreck the cavern and tire himself out doing so. Then he'll sleep and wake up himself again." She said and he nodded.

"In the meantime, let's get her sorted." Nisha indicated towards Vida and he nodded. "I might have some herbs to help her sleep better. She's clearly struggling to."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Damon sat back against the wall and wiped sweat from his face. His body was boiling and he felt as though he had insects under his skin. It was driving him insane! He had to keep trying to get out of here, but he'd broken his hands punching the wall. He sucked on his knuckles as they healed. He'd drank all of Stefan's bottles, stifling the urge to scream and break his wrists in an effort to free himself as he did. Tasting Stefan but not being able to hold him, scent him, make love…it was torture. He didn't care what that wolf said. No way he'd tried to hurt Stefan and didn't remember. He'd never hurt him. He couldn't. Stefan was easily his match and sometimes faster and smarter. When he thought of the amount of times when they'd been at odds years ago and they'd fought…Stefan had gotten him good on plenty of occasions. Where he had the braun, Stefan had the brains and always managed to impale him or something.

He gave a chuckle as he remembered the first time Stefan had done that. Stefan had been so mad with rage and had smiled triumphantly as Damon had spat blood out of his mouth and gagged. He'd let him think for a few minutes that he was suffering, but back then he still feed on human blood and plenty of it. It had been hilarious to pretend that he was in agonising pain, only to then pull the knife out and laugh in his face as Stefan realised it was a ruse. Still, that was before they loved each other, when Stefan was boy wonder and he was…well he just liked to play with him like a cat and see what he'd do.

That was a different lifetime. Now Stefan was the world. Those days of smashing each other around were long gone.

He heard footsteps approaching and he stood up, ready. The wolf from earlier came in and unlocked the gate, stepping aside as the guy Ian walked in cautiously. They stared at each other.

"I'm here to help you get through this Damon. You have to trust me. Trust the pack, in that we mean you no harm." Ian said.

"Bullshit! Where's Stefan?" Damon spat. "What have you done with him?"

"Nothing. He's better. His heat has ended and he's fine I swear. He's at home right now. He wants you better."

"I want to see him." He demanded.

"You will, but only if you make a deal."

"A deal?" Damon snorted.

"You drink this and cooperate and we'll unchain you." Ian said simply and pulled a bottle from his pocket.

"What the hell is _that_?" Damon growled.

"It'll reduce your vampire strength and speed so we can unchain you." Ian advised.

"What?!"

"Damon, yesterday you grabbed Stefan and your strength is so little in your control because of your rut, you hurt him. Do you remember that?"

"Fucking lies!" Damon blurred for him and strained as he reached his limit of movement.

"It's not your fault, he knows that but if you don't take this, you could still hurt him again."

"I'm going to rip your lying tongue out!" Damon fought the chains wildly and Bill entered fully to stand at Ian's side defensively. "You're all dogs! Pathetic snivelling little dogs!"

Ian frowned as he heard Damon shoulder dislocate and he took a step forward, Bill grabbing his shoulder and preventing him in caution.

"I'll kill you when I get out here!" Damon foamed at the mouth and cried out as he felt his arm tear again.

He fell back panting and held his arm enraged.

"Drink this and I'll let you try." Ian said calmly and held up the small bottle.

Damon stared at him in disbelief.

"Drink it and you can fight me. Right here, right now."

Damon growled and looked to Bill.

"No one will stop you. It'll be you and me big guy." Ian said.

Damon panted, cracking his shoulder back into place as Bill grimaced.

"Go to hell with your poison." Damon said a little calmer from the pain and took a few steps back.

"Ok then." Ian sighed dramatically and looked to Bill, each of them exchanging a knowing glance. "I guess I'll just go and visit Stefan then. See if he _needs_ me."

Damon looked at him enraged.

"Heard Vida isn't sleeping. I'll just take her to my place and keep her for a while, maybe a _long_ while."

Damon growled.

"Hell, I'll take her. She prefers the company of wolves anyway." Bill added and Damon panted again.

"I hear Stefan does too." Ian smirked and Damon lunged for him again, snapping his fangs and roaring.

Ian stepped back a step and held up the bottle again, raising an eyebrow.

"So what's it to be?"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 TH

Stefan groaned sleepily as Vida awoke crying again. She didn't seem to be able to sleep more than a few hours at a time. He was exhausted. He climbed out of bed and lifted her, half asleep and brought her into the bed with him. His dreams were filled with horrific images of Damon being beaten by the wolves as it was, only to have his sleep interrupted by her cries.

_Love, I'm tired angel please…_

He channelled and closed his eyes as she snuggled into his skin crying still. How had she still enough water in her body to cry? She'd refused any more blood and had had a screaming tantrum when Nisha had tried to give her baby food instead. Nothing was working.

"I can't do this alone." He whimpered, crying silently as he rubbed her back soothingly. "Damon."

Nisha gave a soft chap at his bedroom door and he called her in as he tried to compose himself. She had offered to sleep in the lounge in case he needed help. He was so grateful she was here. He sat up, wiping his tears away subtly as she came over to the bed and took Vida from him. Vida wailed almost angrily and Nisha exhaled and placed a small handkerchief to her little nose.

"Sssssssh darling. Smell that?" She cooed.

Vida quietened a little at Damon's scent and Stefan ran his fingers through his hair.

"Let me take her into the lounge and you can get some rest. Where are Damon's clothes?" She asked and Stefan tiredly pointed to Damon's dresser.

She walked over and pulled one of Damon's t-shirts out. She sat Vida on the changing table and wrapped her up in it, cooing to her and slipping her pacifier into her mouth. She sucked on it eagerly, still grasping the handkerchief to her cheek.

"Ok. Enough is enough angel." She tiredly scolded.

She lifted Vida and held her so her face rested against her shoulder and turned to Stefan.

"Sleep. I'll take care of this."

He nodded and lay back down again. Vida began to cry amongst her pacifier and Nisha quickly left the room. Stefan exhaled and lay on his back, trying to sleep again. He could hear Vida gurning unhappily in the next room though. If she was still like this tomorrow, he was going to have to do something. He was going to have to take her to see Damon. Maybe if she could see he was still here and hadn't left them, then it'd be enough. He could wait until Damon was asleep so she would see him but not be afraid if he was still aggressive. He nodded to himself. Yes, that'd work.

He tossed and turned, failing to find his comfortable position again and eventually sat up. Vida seemed to be asleep once more. He got out of bed and splashed his face with water. He looked gaunt despite drinking from Damon's bottles. His body was reacting to Damon's state. The wolves didn't know. They didn't know they shared a soul and it was something Damon felt very strongly about keeping secret. It made them weaker to have people know about it. It was something people could use against them. Damon was right, but right now, Stefan wished he could confide in someone.

He thought on what time it was. He looked at his watch. 3.30 in the morning. Would Damon be asleep? Maybe he could go by and just look in on him, just to make sure he was ok. He grabbed a shirt and snuck out of the bedroom, finding Nisha passed out on the sofa with Vida in her arms soundly asleep. She'd think this was a bad idea, but it felt right.

He carefully left the lodge as silently as he could and headed into the woods. He wasn't exactly sure where Damon was being held but he knew he could find it if he trusted his nose. He sniffed the air. Everything was sharper at this time. All of the smells were more potent, fresher almost. He caught Damon's scent – the roses and he followed it. He was quite deep into the woods before he smelled the blood. Oh god. It was human blood. He blurred around, sniffing and trying to find the source when he saw a body lying near an entranceway cut into the side of a cave.

His heart froze in his chest and he blurred to the body. Still alive, barely. It was John. Poor John. He bit into his wrist and fed him, making the injured wolf jolt in surprise and open his eyes.

"It's ok it's me, Stefan. Hold still, hold still. Just drink." He whispered and John blinked up at him confused but obeyed. "John, who else is injured? How many?"

John pushed his wrist away and took a deep breath.

"Three. Stefan, he fooled us. The herbs didn't work."

"What?" Stefan helped him sit up worriedly.

"It seemed to work at first so Ian started to unchain him, then he just…he just went crazy!" John exhaled, full of emotion.

"Where is he?" Stefan licked his lips anxiously and sniffed around.

"I don't know." John replied weakly.

"Stay here." Stefan stood up again and approached the cave entrance carefully.

_Damon?_

He walked inside carefully, finding a set of stairs. Blood was spilled up them, where John must have retreated when he was injured. Stefan felt his heart hammer in fear of what he might find in here. He climbed down the stairs and knelt before the body of Bill, crumpled. Still alive. Stefan shook his head in amazement. Damon in this kind of state normally killed people left, right and centre and yet they were all alive so far.

He bit into his wrist and fed the bruised wolf, rousing him gently and helping him sit up again. When he was sure the wolf was going to be ok he moved to go ahead towards the gate he could see lying open. Bill caught his ankle.

"No! Stefan he'll kill you." Bill warned.

"He hasn't killed any of you." Stefan pointed out and Bill exhaled in fear. "I can take him."

He moved onwards, hearing panting and growling from just ahead. He paused for a second and listening, trying to channel again. It felt difficult to channel right now. He frowned, trying to concentrate and sniffed the air. He touched the rock and studied it for a second as he pulled his fingertips away. Copper. There was copper in the rock. Could it be preventing him channelling properly? His head did feel a little blurry. He shook his head and edged closer to the growling sounds.

He was almost there and ready for whatever Damon would throw at him. He knew how Damon liked to attack. He was so readable. All these years running around and killing and Damon still always showed his hand as he was about to attack. In this animalistic form, Stefan would know exactly what moves he would do. He reached the gate and looked in.

"Stefan!"

"Ian!" Stefan rushed inwards to help the injured wolf who was growling as he tried to pull part of a metal pole out of his body. "Don't, let me."

Stefan took over as the wolf paled and lay back weakly.

"I'm sorry. He tricked me." Ian panted and Stefan cooed at him to relax as he got a grab of the blood coated end of the pole and ripped it out in one motion.

The wolf screamed in pain and Stefan heard the other two wolves stumbling in towards them to give aid.

"Drink, it'll heal." Stefan bit his wrist open again and thrust it at him and Ian drank deeply as Stefan put pressure on his wound.

He looked around, trying to figure out what had transpired. Damon's blood was over some chains lying on the ground. The metal pole had evidently been taken from a makeshift army bed in the corner. They didn't stand a chance and yet, Damon had left them alive. He shook his head. The two others came to Ian's side and Ian nodded that he'd drank enough. They helped him stand.

"Everyone ok?" Ian panted, evidently still in some pain. "He's a strong son of a bitch!"

"When did he escape?" Stefan asked worriedly.

"Not long. A few minutes before you arrived. I tried to hold him back Stefan…" Ian explained remorsefully.

"You couldn't. He would have killed you." Stefan shook his head.

"A few minutes? He could be at the camp by now." Bill pointed out

"But he must have passed me in the woods somewhere. Why didn't he find me?" Stefan frowned.

John gasped and they all looked to him.

"Oh god." He whispered in fear.

"What? What's wrong?" Ian asked, holding his side.

"He could smell her on me."

"Who?" Ian demanded.

"The baby. When we were fighting, he caught her scent from earlier." John said alarmed and Ian and Bill gasped.

"Vida." Stefan said numbly. "He won't hurt her." He said weakly. "Not the baby."

"Stefan look around!" Ian said angrily. "We have to get back now!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Damon ran, the woods blurring passed him as he moved. It felt so good to be out in the night air and free. He laughed to himself feeling the adrenaline charge his body. Would it feel like this when the moon was out? He came to a stop as he smelled Stefan. Stefan…

His heart thundered. His mate had come for him? He smiled in relief and stood up when he hesitated. Stefan ran passed him unawares and he watched confused. He didn't smell him. How? He was going to call on him, to channel but as Stefan disappeared into the woods he yet again hesitated. Stefan was fine. He could look after himself, but his baby…his baby. She needed him. She shouldn't be being cared for by strange wolves. She'd be afraid. She needed him more than Stefan did. He nodded.

He would leave Stefan for the moment. He'd be ok. He began to run again, heading towards the camp. The sun would be up in a few hours and he wanted to make sure that he had Vida and Stefan with him by then. His car was parked not far from their lodge. If Stefan fought about it, he'd just stuff him in the trunk. Yes, that's what he'd do. Stefan didn't know what the wolves had been doing to him. He thought they were all good people. Well they weren't. They'd tried to poison him, keep him from his mate, stolen his baby, his line, his offspring. No! He wouldn't allow it anymore.

He growled angrily as he thought on it all. He ran to the road side and stopped for a breath. He must have taken a wrong turning somehow. His brain felt a little foggy. He rubbed his face and tried to focus, when he saw the headlights of a car heading in his direction. Time for some old school fun. He grinned and lay himself down on the road. This was always a good game, but now it would be even easier as he was battered and covered in blood from the fight. It'd look much more convincing.

The car slowed down to a stop and he held perfectly still, playing dead. He waited as the seconds ticked past. What was taking the damn driver so long? He could be dying here for god's sake! Must be a bloody woman, freaking out and trying to get a reception on her cell to call for help before she left her car to check him. He almost chuckled, humans were so predictable.

The car door finally swung open and he heard footsteps approaching cautiously. Definitely a woman freaking out and probably all teary. He'd eat her later. Oh…not anymore actually. Ok, he'd just break her neck and steal her car then.

He waited impatiently as the footsteps approached at a slow pace still, to the point where he was bored and he sat up.

"I could be dying you know!" He grunted annoyed and stared into the barrel of a shotgun.

He squinted in the light of the headlights, trying to see the face of his would-be attacker.

"Bad move." He blurred onto his feet and grabbed the assailant, staring into eyes he knew well.

"Nathan?" He asked in disbelief and Nathan gave an unhappy smile.

"Sorry brother."

Damon opened his mouth in confusion when he felt a needle stab him in his side. He frowned and growled and Nathan let him drop to the ground. He looked up at him as his vision began to blur.

_Sleep alpha. Sleep._

Nathan channelled and Damon let his face fall to the ground.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The whole camp was awoken by what had happened and everyone had an opinion about what should be done. Stefan paced the floor as they all argued. Some of the wolves wanted them to leave. They were too dangerous, too strong to be in a normal pack. He knew some of them had secretly harboured their prejudices over their vampire nature and this disaster had brought it to the surface.

"Everyone be quiet!" Ian roared.

Everyone fell silent and Stefan leaned back against the window sill and exhaled.

"Alpha." Ian turned to Constance who was sitting uncomfortably large and fatigued.

"Everyone needs to calm down." She said calmly. "Whether Damon stays or not, we must figure out our next move together."

"This shouldn't be our problem!" A young woman said angrily and glared at Stefan. "He shouldn't even be here with us. Let them figure out their problems somewhere else around their own kind."

Stefan clenched his jaw but remained silent.

"Whether they are with their own kind is beside the point!" Constance shouted and winced as she held her stomach.

The young woman bowed her head in respect.

"Vampire, hybrid, something else…whatever they are, they came to us for help." She continued.

"This is a wolf cycle. You've all seen a bad rut. You know what can happen. Damon's other abilities aren't his fault. We have to concentrate in what we know and that is what his instincts are driving him to." Ian said and looked to the men, who all bristled uncomfortably.

"He could be anywhere. He could come at any time and kill us all." Someone voiced.

"He's not running around killing blindly. He's rutting and that means he wants his mate and cub." Constance sighed.

"He didn't kill me even when he smelled her scent on me. Maybe if we leave him to be with them…" John began, but was interrupted by a chorus of arguments.

Stefan closed his eyes and sighed. This was getting them nowhere. Some believed Damon should just be left to find Stefan and Vida and let nature take its course and others argued that he was still too aggressive and may kill both of them. He shook his head unsure. He hadn't been able to get a read on Damon at all. All he knew was that Damon could have killed the wolves if he'd wanted to and he hadn't. That had to mean he had some control. Also, he must have seen Stefan run through the woods and not come for him. That one was a harder pill to swallow. The thought that he'd been running to Damon to see him and Damon had just let him run past, was agonising.

Vida didn't want him, she wanted Damon and Damon wanted Vida and not him. He sighed unhappily. So strange to feel like a third wheel in their little group for the first time. He shook his head and shed a tear that he caught before it could spill down his face and he felt a hand on his shoulder. He opened his eyes.

"Stefan?" It was Constance and he blinked at her in surprise. "You saved their lives tonight. I know they won't forget that."

As she spoke, Bill, John and Ian all nodded to him. He gave a small smile.

"What do you believe Damon will do?" She asked and he sagged a little.

Truth was, he had no idea. Damon at his core was territorial and possessive. He loved fiercely and protected what he loved with little thought or care for others. That was who he was. If he wanted to get to Vida, he'd do whatever it took.

"He won't give up until he has her." He answered and Constance nodded.

"Neither would I." Ian defended. "If she was mine."

A few of the men grumbled in agreement.

"We'll leave. As soon as we find him, I'll take him away from here." Stefan said and Constance nodded. "He won't hurt anyone else."

"He needs our help alpha. This is the worst I've ever seen." Ian said worriedly.

A knock sounded at the door and one of the men went to answer it. Stefan swallowed hard and looked over to Nisha. She was holding Vida. She'd managed to blend a herb that was keeping Vida calm. He didn't like the thought of drugging his angel, but she was inconsolable and he didn't know what to do.

"Ian, quick!" The wolf who'd answered the door sounded.

Ian jumped up and went outside, followed by some of the others. Stefan frowned and followed them, pushing past them once they were outside. He halted in surprise when he saw Nathan.

"Nathan?" He whispered in disbelief.

Nathan looked over and moved to him, grabbing him in a fierce hug that he returned gladly. He'd never felt so relieved to see a friendly face in all his life.

_What are you doing here? Nathan, family, love, thank you…_

Stefan channelled in a blur of emotion and Nathan scented his cheek briefly before pulling back.

"Someone called the cavalry. Sorry it took me so long to find you." He smiled.

_Pack, love, family._

Nathan channelled back at him and he closed his eyes for a second and breathed.

"Nathan." Ian interrupted their moment regretfully and Nathan nodded and moved around to the trunk of the car.

He popped it open to reveal Damon's unconscious form inside.

"Damon!" Stefan moved around to look at him.

Ian leaned down to lift the body from the trunk and Stefan growled in warning. Nathan waved the others back to clear the way. Ian stepped back with his hands up in peace.

"Mine." Stefan growled, staring at him in warning for a second before he looked to Damon again.

He reached down and lifted Damon into his arms, turning around to see everyone out of the lodge and staring at him now. He suddenly felt completely alone and under the microscope. What was he supposed to do now? He gulped and looked down at Damon's face, scenting his cheek and rubbing their noses together. The affection he was showing seemed to remind some of the vampire haters that although Damon appeared to be nothing more than a vampire douche bag, he was in fact deeply loved and bonded in a wolf like manner.

"Where's the safest place?" Nathan was talking, organising as Stefan continued to scent Damon and hold him to him.

He smelled of the rock in the cave and tasted a little like the copper. Perhaps it had blocked some of his smell in the woods. He still couldn't figure out how he'd passed by him earlier and not known. Someone touched his shoulder and he was roused from his thoughts.

_Need to move him to safety._

Nathan channelled and he nodded as Ian and Bill watched them speak without words. Nathan squeezed his shoulder and turned to the others, discussing the new plan. They would take him to the furthest out lodge that was unoccupied and Nathan was going to try and help until the rut settled.

"But his strength Nate…"

"I'm his beta. He won't kill me. I'll be able to do this, to help him through. He trusts me. I'm one of his."

"I'm not so sure. He went for Stefan." Bill said and Nathan looked over at Stefan anxiously.

Stefan shook his head.

_I'm ok._

Nathan exhaled and turned back to the others.

"I can bring him round. If I could stop him from killing me under the spell, I can do it now." He said confidently.

"What about restraints?"

"No. It'll make him aggressive."

"But…"

"No."

"What if he gets loose?"

"What if you need help?"

"What if…"

Stefan zoned out, unable to listen to them anymore as he stared down at Damon's face. Everything seemed so simple with Damon here, in his arms and safe. His heart slowed and he felt a sense of calm relax over his taut body.

"We'll take him and leave some vervain around the lodge in a perimeter, that way if he gets out…"

"No." Stefan said calmly and everyone looked to him in surprise.

"What?" Ian frowned.

"No. No more holding him captive. No more fighting to beat this out of him." Stefan said confidently and Nathan came over to him and searched his eyes.

"Stefan, it won't be for much longer. I know this is hard but we have to keep you safe." Ian sighed frustrated and Stefan looked to him unblinking.

"I'm not a woman."

"Huh?" Bill frowned now and Nathan exhaled and looked down at his feet.

"Stop treating me like one because I can have a heat."

Ian stepped forward and reached out to squeeze Stefan's shoulder and Stefan glared at him in warning not to patronize him.

"Stefan, that's…that's not what we're doing. We just…he's so strong and…"

"I'm just as strong as he is, stronger sometimes. I don't need anyone's protection." Stefan clenched his jaw annoyed and looked from one to the other. "I'm not an omega!"

_Stefan, they don't know you._

Nathan channelled and Stefan huffed at him, putting his lips to Damon's hairline.

"He's mine and I'm his. I'm grateful for everything you've done to help us. I'm sorry we didn't listen to your advice. We wouldn't be here if we had, but I'll take it from here."

They began to voice their arguments and Nathan held his hands up to calm them.

"Hey guys calm down. Let him go. It's between them now."

Stefan nodded at him gratefully.

_Relief, ally, friend._

Stefan channelled and Nathan smiled and nodded, looking at Damon's face.

"I'll look after lady impossible. Channel if you need me." He advised and Stefan nodded.

He walked through the centre of them all and headed out towards the heat tent that Damon had been building. As he went, Ian called after him and he turned his head to look back.

"If he hurts anyone…it's on you now."

Stefan nodded and clenched his jaw.

It's always on me. He thought as he walked away.

Nathan walked back, keeping silent as the other wolves argued and cursed Stefan's stupidity. He wasn't sure how to explain why he trusted Stefan's gut without divulging their secrets.

"What the hell is he thinking? After everything we've done, what we've gone through the past few days! He's just throwing it back in our faces!" Bill ranted as Ian grunted.

"They aren't normal wolves Bill. They are special. Maybe Stefan is the only one who can solve this." Nathan defended and Ian looked at him, studying him.

"What changed your mind all of a sudden? We had a plan Nate and part of that plan was to keep Stefan and Vida safe while you helped your alpha." Ian accused and Nathan exhaled.

"They've been through a lot and I've learned that when they want to be together, no one should get in their way." Nathan said simply.

"You really think that Stefan can hold his own?"

"Stefan can take care of himself. I watched him dismember a third of that hybrid army."

"Bill paused walking and stared at him in disbelief."

"Put it this way, I wouldn't want to be on his bad side." Nathan advised and they slowly started walking again.

"When we invited them to come stay with us to learn about their instincts, we didn't sign up for this Nate." Ian sighed unhappily and Nathan nodded.

"Neither did they. They're new to this." Nathan said. "They're trying but it'll take time."

They continued their walk in silence, back to Nisha's lodge where everyone was still gathered. They knocked on the door and entered. Nisha frowned at the absence of Stefan.

"Where's Stefan?" She asked and Nathan shook his head.

"Stefan has decided to bear the rest of the rut on his own with his mate. It was his choice." Ian announced and everyone looked to each other concerned for him.

Nisha looked to Nathan worriedly.

"We'll keep a perimeter of distance from the lodge. Stefan can handle it from here. No one goes into the west woods until this is over. Let's just give them some space." Ian sat down.

Everyone began to converse on Stefan's decision and Nathan spied Vida's bassinet, walking over to it eagerly. Nisha followed him as he looked down at the sleeping baby. He stroked her head and leaned down to scent her face.

"What's he doing?" She asked him.

"He's trusting his guts, like I've been telling him to do since this all happened to them." He looked at her and she frowned. "They have so much more than this change happening between them Nisha. Stefan knows he can do this and if he needs us, I'll feel it."

"You can channel with them that well?" She raised an eyebrow and he nodded.

"If anything goes down, I'll know and I can intervene. I think we have to let this play out. How will they ever learn how to deal with the next lifetime of heats if people are getting involved?"

"He asked for my help." She said defensively and Nathan shook his head at his careless words and put his arm around her.

"And you have helped him. Stefan said Damon didn't kill anyone?" She nodded. "Whatever you were doing to help Damon with this heat has worked then, because trust me, that guy, he wouldn't question killing anyone around here for a second, beforehand."

She searched his face anxiously.

"All he cares about is Stefan and Vida, well…plus a few chosen few who he doesn't mind." He smirked. "You did good here, but now we have to let them find their own way."

Vida began to gurn and spat her pacifier out, opening her eyes and Nathan smiled down at her.

"Hello my little lady."

Vida frowned as she looked up at him in surprise. She blinked for a few seconds and then gave a small smile. Nisha chuckled in amazement.

"Yeah she knows me, uncle Nathan. Wolfman." He chuckled and lifted her from the bassinet, cradling her and scenting her forehead.

She giggled and reached for his face and everyone looked on in amazement to see her settled. Nathan realised everyone was staring and he looked around in surprise.

"What?"

"Thank god. We'll all sleep tonight!" John joked and everyone chuckled.

"You might have just saved my sanity." Constance smiled as she stood up. "I'm going to bed. Everyone I suggest you do the same. If Stefan needs us, he'll let us know."

Everyone began to leave and Nathan bounced Vida, cooing at her and channelling images to her of the Boarding House and her two aunts, who were now preparing for college applications. Vida gazed up at him as he channelled and he nuzzled her, kissing her forehead.

"I've missed you." He whispered. "I'm gonna look after you ok?"

Vida sighed, seemingly content and he slipped her pacified back into her mouth.

"There's a spare bed next room." Nisha chuckled and he nodded in thanks and grabbed Vida's bassinet.

He hummed to her as he walked to the room. She seemed a little squirmy from tiredness but evidently the novelty of having him around again was enough to keep her from crying and feeling fear.

She channelled an image of Stefan holding her.

"Soon." He said.

He lay her in her bassinet but she began to fuss immediately and cry, so he lifted her again and lay her in the bed.

"Ok lady. What is it about those eyes? Can't say no to either of you." He shook his head comically and climbed in beside her, cushioning around her with pillows so she wouldn't roll away.

She watched him as he lay down, sucking on her pacifier and he channelled her an image of her daddies laughing and holding each other. She sighed and blinked heavily.

_Sleep, love._

He watched as she closed her eyes and fell asleep. He hoped Stefan did know what he was getting himself into out there.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 TH

_Damon? Love, mate._

Stefan channelled as he stroked the hairs away from Damon's forehead. He'd entered a few unused lodges and moved a few piece of their furniture into their heat hut. It was small and only had one room, but it would do and it was private. Damon had picked the perfect spot for that.

Damon had been out for a while now, longer than vervain normally did to him and Stefan grew concerned. He'd bathed him to remove the smell and dirt of the copper and so Damon now lay naked in their heat bed, surrounded by the nest that Stefan was building around him.

Stefan lay down on top of him naked, pressing their bodies together and lay his nose against Damon's.

_Wake up and have me my black haired one. It's time for you to come home._

He began to scent his neck, biting lightly and humming at the roses. He was hungry. The bottles hadn't sufficed. He nuzzled him and bit down to drink. Damon's eyes hot open and he sat up, throwing Stefan across the bed and onto the floor in a blur. Stefan huffed as he landed in a heap and looked up in surprise. Damon was panting and growling at him, trying to figure out where he was.

"Damon?"

Damon studied him, his veins tingling and his fangs out. Stefan gulped. He should try and stay really still. He had no idea what to expect here and he had to heed the warnings of the wolves. Damon looked around, sniffing and then looked down to him again. He crawled forward, still looking a little terrifying and Stefan breathed calmly and waited.

"Mine." Damon licked his lips and looked at Stefan's body and Stefan nodded. "My mate."

Stefan watched as Damon climbed off of the bed, not taking his eyes from his as though Stefan was some terrified animal that would run at any minute. He edged closer and crawled towards him on the ground on his hands and knees. Stefan thought on whether he should present himself like he had when they'd mated as animals, but he didn't want to do that. He wanted them to do this as human as possible. Then again, that plan hadn't really worked out. The wolves kept talking about letting instinct take over, allowing themselves this but…

Before he had the chance to do anything, Damon pulled him forward harshly and dragged his body against his, turning them so he could place Stefan onto the floor face first. That was that then. Stefan relaxed his muscles and waited, tilting his hips to present his rear for him a little. Damon seemed pleased this time and although he bit his scruff again, this time it didn't hurt. Stefan sighed and opened his knees wider to allow him access.

_Damon?_

_Stefan. Want you so bad._

Stefan smiled in relief and Damon grunted as he bit down into his shoulder and began to feed. Stefan closed his eyes as he felt Damon channel his memories of the past few days, his feelings of being trapped, denied his mate and baby. It was a big swirl of confusion, aching in his body that he didn't understand and aggression because of those feelings. He felt helpless and dangerous all at the one time.

Stefan opened his mouth to speak when Damon pushed inside of him and he halted and gasped.

_Need you, need you to take the pain away._

Damon channelled and bit his scruff again and Stefan realised just how powerless Damon was right now. He may be the one on top, taking dominance and penetrating but from what his thoughts were translating, only Stefan had the power to ease him. Stefan had all if the power. How strange that it hadn't felt that way at all. Damon had said that he felt as Stefan was treating the heat as something terrible where he would have no say or control in anything but he'd had anything but. Damon had been the true purveyor of that treatment. Now it all made sense.

The heat seemed like something that made Stefan weaker because he'd become so desperate to be bred, to be had, that he'd lose his identity, but in reality the heat was something that both of their bodies needed. Damon's rut wasn't so dissimilar and from what the wolves had told him, the rut was the answer to the heat with their bodies. There was a symbiosis in that, that brought their bodies together and made them both strong and healthy. The heat and rut were Yin and Yang. Two parts of a whole. Neither of them was the alpha or omega. Neither of them was the guy or female. They both needed each other to get through this.

Damon's picked up speed, stirring Stefan's thoughts away as he gasped and moaned. Damon seemed big still and insistent. God it felt so good. Damon was panting furiously and grabbing at him as he pounded into his entrance, their bodies moving together and then the blessed milking started. This time Stefan wasn't afraid. He was ready. He'd never despise this process ever again now that he knew Damon's body needed him like this. This wasn't just about him feeling vulnerable and claimable anymore. His mate needed his body to do this.

The milking was intense and they both moaned and clung to each other as Damon pushed himself in impossibly deep. Stefan cried out in surprise and Damon lay his face into the back of his neck and panted. The milking made them both climax, covering the floor and Stefan's body in their juices. Stefan lay his face onto his arms and sighed in relief. Everything was going to be ok now. He'd spend the next few days helping Damon's body vent this and they'd be together completely. He closed his eyes and smiled at that thought, when he felt Damon's body shake slightly. He exhaled and rocked his hips back.

Damon softened and slid out of him in a messy movement and Stefan stretched and hummed. Damon sat back and stared down at Stefan's body. This wasn't right. Something wasn't right. He swallowed hard and felt his eyes fill. The ache was still here. Why was it still here?

He held his hand across his manhood and squeezed it in discomfort. Stefan was supposed to be able to make this go away, to make everything clearer again. He shook his head and scratched at his chest. The red ants under his skin still seemed to be there too. He let out a sound of desperation as a few tears spilled down his cheeks. What was happening? Was this fear, anger and confusion ever going to go away? Would he feel like this forever?

"No." He answered himself and choked and Stefan turned over, wide eyed in surprise. "Stefan help me."

Stefan frowned and sat up, pulling him to him and stroking his face.

"Show me my black haired one." Stefan pleaded, just as emotional and confused.

"Help." Damon began to sob silently and hung his head as Stefan held him to him and kissed the top of his head. "It's not right!"

"What's not right? Damon? Damon tell me? Show me." Stefan tried to console and Damon felt a stray feeling of anger spike in him.

He shook his head. He had to get Stefan away from him. He couldn't control himself. Maybe he was just going mad. If making love and mating with Stefan wasn't the cure for this mania then he didn't know what was. He had to get away from the people he loved. The wolves said he'd hurt his baby, hurt Stefan and he now realised they were right.

"Damon, look at me." Stefan forced Damon to look at his face as he held Damon's face with both hands. "I don't understand what you're feeling."

"It's not right."

"What isn't?" Stefan frowned and Damon pushed him off of him harshly and growled.

Stefan stayed back, his eyes widening in fear at the turmoil of feelings he could sense from Damon.

"Where is my baby?" Damon cocked his head and growled.

"What?" Stefan asked in surprise.

"Mine!" Damon bore his fangs and held himself defensively. "My baby!"

"Damon, we just have to…" Stefan began when Damon slammed his fists into the floorboards in a rage and almost roared in anger.

Stefan moved back towards the bed and stood up. Damon was looking at him as though he hated him as though he was accusing him of something.

_Fear. Damon what's happening to you?_

Damon panted and looked down at his hands. They were bleeding. He began to lick them and began to calm and Stefan moved slowly around to the other side of the bed, watching him cautiously.

Damon let a sound of grief and looked over to him pleadingly.

"Help Stefan."

Stefan climbed back into the nest and pulled the covers over, trying to think as his heart pounded. Perhaps Damon just needed to be scented more. They could make love for as long as this would take to wither.

He waited, hearing Damon stand again and approach slowly.

_Breed me mate._

Stefan tried to think like his animal self. Damon seemed to be stuck in two frames of mind – animal and himself. The nest opened and Damon stared at him as he moved inside. Stefan opened his legs wide to attract his attention and Damon licked his lips and stared at his manhood. What else should Stefan do? He tilted his throat submissively and let out a whine and Damon immediately lay on top of him, muttering his claim on him in words.

"Mine. Mine. Mate. Stefan. Mine."

Stefan let out a whine again and Damon scented his chest down to his abdomen and paused. Stefan relaxed and tilted his hips up to meet Damon's tongue, waiting, when Damon growled again and held him down fiercely. Stefan panicked and kicked him off of him onto the floor. He blurred to his feet as Damon fought to get out from under the blankets.

_Infertile. Useless. No eggs._

Damon channelled in accusation and each word speared Stefan's heart like a dart.

_Baby. My baby. Protect, rescue._

"No." Stefan warned as Damon stood up again.

"Where is she?" Damon fumed.

"You're not going near her like this." Stefan said calmly and Damon's face grew red.

_In the way, infertile, baby thief!_

Damon growled and Stefan exhaled in pain and stepped backwards. Damon really was completely manic. He thought Stefan had stolen Vida from him?

"Damon don't make me hurt you." Stefan swallowed hard.

He could see the plan in Damon's head right now. He clearly wasn't interested in working through the heat with sex. At least, not sex with Stefan anyway. He was looking around the room for a way to escape and get back to searching for Vida.

"What about me?" Stefan exhaled and Damon shook his head and frowned, appearing to lose some aggression again. "Don't you want me? I'm your mate."

"No." Damon shook his head and Stefan's eyes filled with tears.

"You don't want me?" Stefan asked in disbelief.

"Baby. Where is my baby?" Damon began to mutter and Stefan felt his devastation turn to blind rage.

Enough was enough. He wasn't going to be the third wheel to this rut anymore. Enough about the Vida and Damon story! He growled in anger and ran at Damon, throwing him backwards into the wall.

"You are mine!" Stefan shouted hoarsely. "You're going to stay here and mate with me until this is over!"

"Get out of my way!" Damon roared back and Stefan ran at him again, strangling him and smashing his head back against the wall as Damon fought to free his hold.

"What about me?!" Stefan screamed now and smashed Damon back so hard that he knocked him out.

He let Damon's body crumple to the floor as he panted and sobbed.

"She might be yours but you belong to me." He sobbed looking down at the body. "You belong to me!"

He collapsed next to Damon and put his head in his hands. This was the most horrible moment of his life. He'd been pushed out of the triangle. Damon had called him infertile. How could he do that? Stefan shook his head as tears spilled down his face and he smashed the floor with his fists now too, smashing splinters of wood across the room as he tried to calm himself. He felt like the world was ending.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nathan opened his eyes to Vida gurning and touching his face. He yawned and looked at her. She was unhappy looking and had tears in her eyes.

"Hey sweetness. What's wrong?" He whispered and she began to cry and reach for his face again.

He pulled her nearer to him and she spat her pacifier out crying.

_Hunger._

She channelled and he frowned.

"I don't have tasty blood sweetness, but you can have some if you want." He offered, tilting his neck a little nervously.

He'd never done this before, but she was just a baby with tiny fangs. It couldn't hurt that much right? He placed her face there and waited, his heart in his mouth, for pain. She turned her face away after sniffing his neck for a few seconds and began to cry again.

He cradled her and she channelled and image of Damon.

He sighed unhappily.

"I heard you are afraid for daddy, but he's ok sweetness. You have to relax ok?" He cooed and she buried her face in his arm and seemed to sag a little.

He stroked her face and held her to him. She sniffled but seemed to zone out a little. Was that normal for a baby?

"Hey. You thinking about daddy?" He asked and she blinked but didn't respond, other than to blink some tears down her face.

_Pain._

He frowned and bounced her. She was in pain? She was too little to channel much more than that. He checked her limbs and little body but everything seemed fine. She gurned but didn't look at him when he tried to get her attention.

"Hey, Vida." He spoke to her and she exhaled and buried her face into his arm again.

Was she depressed? Did babies get depressed? He shook his head in confusion. He heard Nisha move around next door and he sat up, holding her and went out into the lounge.

"Nish?" He called and she walked through from the kitchen smiling at him.

"Morning." She said and he exhaled anxiously. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know. Something doesn't feel right with her."

Nisha moved over and took Vida from him and Vida began to cry but avoided eye contact again as though intentionally.

"Can babies get depressed?" He asked, watching as Nisha cooed and tried to get Vida to look at her.

"I don't know." Nisha admitted, frowning when Vida exhaled and turned her head to look away from her. "This whole family doesn't make any damn sense."

"True dat." Nathan ran his hands through his hair. "She wants Damon."

"I know. Stefan says she's been channelling for him. The only things that were making her calm were his clothes because of the scent." Nisha said and moved over to the bassinet and retrieved Damon's t-shirt.

"Hey, look what I have here angel." Nisha cooed and brought it up to Vida's face.

Vida's eyes filled and she began to cry but she didn't take the shirt in hand and suck on it like she had before. Nisha frowned worriedly.

"It's not working anymore." Nathan guessed.

Nisha looked at him and gulped too. Vida wasn't going to eat. She could just feel it in her bones. What the hell were they going to do?

"Stefan's been with him all night. Maybe it's over." Nathan said tentatively.

"You aren't suggesting what I think you are, are you?" She raised an eyebrow and he exhaled and rubbed his face. "You can't be serious."

"She wants him." He huffed and shook his head. "I feel like it's right."

"You can't take her to him. What if he and Stefan are joined? What if Damon's still feral?"

Nathan sat down and shook his head, looking at Vida's tear stained face. She didn't look well. She looked half starved actually.

_Baby, you wanna see daddy?_

He channelled and she looked at him as she sniffed with a petted lip. He channelled an image of Damon to her and she began to wail with everything she had. He looked to Nisha.

"What are you saying to her?" Nisha asked as she tried to bounce her.

"I have to take her to Damon. She can't last much longer without eating and for whatever reason, he is the key to her returning to normal." He said and she shook her head and cradled Vida protectively.

"Not a chance."

Nathan stood up and with a sympathetic look on his face, he searched her eyes.

"She's not yours." He said consolingly but with authority and Nisha paled and became emotional as she tried to fight her own tears. "Nish…"

He reached out for the baby and Nisha clenched her jaw and held back a growl. Vida became inconsolable as she screamed and kicked. Nathan moved to take her and Nisha exhaled and closed her eyes.

"If he hurts a hair on her head…"

"Then I'll kill him myself." He vowed and she searched his eyes for a few seconds before relinquishing her to him. "Hey lady, shush now. We're going to see your daddies, ok?"

He channelled her an image of Damon again and she stopped crying and stared at his face as though she was trying to tell whether he was lying or not.

"Ok?" He asked and bounced her and she closed her eyes tiredly and exhaled. "That's a response if ever I've seen one." He looked to Nisha who was holding herself, tearily.

He gave Nisha a respectful nod and went over to the bassinet, placing Vida inside carefully. Vida gave a small gurn of longing and he shushed her.

"We're going sweetness." He nodded and tucked her under her blanket.

She frowned but remained quiet as he lifted the bassinet. He looked to Nisha again.

"I have to trust my gut Nish." He said sadly. "These guys are connected like you wouldn't believe and she's their baby. I gotta trust that she might need them more than a normal baby because of their connection."

Nisha nodded but turned away from him as he headed toward the front door. He opened it and looked back at her.

He opened his mouth, unsure of what to say and closed it again. He knew he'd hurt her just now. He could see how she had bonded with Vida and she did share feelings of motherhood with her. With the loss of her own baby, this must be unbearable. His hesitance to leave made Vida begin to gurn and cry again and he exhaled and stepped out, closing the door behind him as he convinced himself he was doing the right thing.

He walked down her porch steps, smiling in acknowledgement of the others passing around him. He couldn't tell them his plan. He had a feeling they wouldn't agree. It was one thing to allow Stefan to be alone with a mate in such a bad rut that he'd injured people, but a vulnerable baby? He swallowed down guilt at this deception, but he couldn't ignore his gut. Stefan and Damon were his family, his blood relatives and his allegiance had to be to them first and foremost. After everything they'd gone through together…

He began walking rapidly, ducking in behind one of the lodges as he tried to avoid being seen. Vida made gurning sounds and he shushed her. He saw an opportunity and ran for the west woods. He held the bassinet close to his side as he ran and managed to get deep into the woods without being noticed. He looked around to ensure the coast was clear and looked in on her. She was frowning and looking up at the sky. He began to sniff the air, looking for Stefan's scent. It didn't take him long to find it and he darted in that direction, coming across and rather sad looking wooden hut with a slanted roof.

_Stefan? Are you ok?_

He channelled cautiously, sniffing and awaiting a response. He wasn't going to waltz in there into unchartered territory. His heart beat loudly in his chest. He heard movement and looked towards the door.

_Nathan?_

The door opened and a teary, distressed looking Stefan peaked out. Nathan immediately set the bassinet down and went to him, reaching out to touch his face in concern. Stefan pulled back a little and Nathan dropped his hands.

"What's wrong? Has he hurt you?" Nathan asked, dreading the answer and Stefan shook his head. "What's going on?"

"He, uh…" Stefan swallowed painfully and looked to the ground. "He doesn't want me."

"What?" Nathan frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Stefan wilted and channelled Nathan his memory of Damon's reaction to him and Nathan took a step back and chewed his lip. Stefan exhaled and shook his head, noticing Vida's bassinet finally. He tensed and pushed past Nathan to go to her.

"What the hell are you doing?" He accused horrified and Nathan gulped, paling a little. "Get her out of here!"

"I can't. Stefan I think she needs…"

"He's acting like an animal. What the hell are you thinking?!" He growled and lifted her from the bassinet to scent her face.

She began to squirm and gurn and Nathan watched helpless as he tried to think of what to say.

"Stefan she needs…"

"Idiot!" Stefan spat and Vida began to cry now. "Get her out of here before he wakes up!"

"Stefan I…"

Nathan fell forward suddenly and landed on his face. He heard Stefan growl and he picked himself up to see Damon, naked and growling too.

"Damon." Nathan coughed and Stefan held Vida to his chest defensively, circling Damon in warning.

"My baby!" Damon growled at him and Vida screamed and kicked.

"I'll kill you!" Stefan warned and Nathan stood up nervously.

"Guys, wait, calm down!" He held his hands out but neither paid him any heed.

Vida screamed forcefully and Damon grimaced and looked to her longingly.

" _My_ baby." He said a little calmer but still in a territorial manner.

Stefan moved backwards towards the hut, watching him like a hawk and snapping his fangs at him angrily. Nathan moved back from him too and looked towards Damon. He frowned as he realised Damon was naked and shaking. He tuned his ears in and listened to his heart beat. Something was off.

_Damon stand down, you're scaring him and the baby._

Damon looked to him and back to Vida again. His only focus seemed to be Vida, not Stefan. What was happening? A rut should make him want both of them.

"Let's stay calm everyone." Nathan held his hands up in peace and Stefan snorted, scenting the screaming baby's face to no avail. "Stefan."

Stefan looked to him sharply and growling.

"Give her to me. I'll take her away." Nathan offered and Damon snapped his fangs at him.

"No! Mine!" Damon growled.

"Mine." Stefan growled in a low deadly voice and held her tight.

She screamed inconsolably and Nathan began to fear the wolves would venture over to see what was happening. That could be a very bad thing to happen. He looked between the two as he fretted. This was really bad, really bad. He looked to her face and swallowed. She looked over at him and he chewed his lip. What was he going to do?

Damon darted forward to grab her and Stefan blurred out of the way. Nathan watched, freaking out at how easily they could hurt each other and her and he made his own move. As Damon rushed for him again, Stefan darted back towards Nathan and Nathan grabbed him from behind and hooked his arm around his throat. Stefan choked in surprise and tried to fight him off with his other arm and Damon watched in fear Vida would be dropped.

_Alpha, take your baby._

Nathan channelled and Stefan roared. Damon gasped and blurred to them, grabbing her into his arms and backing away as Stefan cried out.

"No! Let me go!"

_Peace, love, please Stefan just wait, just wait!_

Stefan tried to throw Nathan over his head. He was going to kill him, but as he began to do so Vida stopped crying suddenly. Nathan crumpled to the ground gasping and holding his dislocated shoulder and Stefan looked over in terror at Vida.

Nathan looked up and gasped, wide eyed. Damon sat down slowly, transfixed on his baby as she pressed her face into his chest and took one of his nipples into her mouth. Everyone paused, watching as their hearts beat wildly. Vida began to suck and Damon gasped and blinked hard. Vida closed her eyes and sighed in relief as she put her little hands on his pecs and held herself there.

"Vida?" Stefan whispered, awestruck and Nathan sat up too and stared.

Damon marvelled down at his daughter and stroked her head. She suckled determined and hungry, making sucking sounds and trying to press on his chest to get more of the fluid trickling. She was more than hungry, she was starving. He held her to him, tilting her so that she could rest her hands against him without trying to hold herself onto his nipple. Her whole body relaxed. He felt his body sink into the ground. This was right, this was right. He exhaled slowly.

Stefan fell to his knees, his mouth open as he continued to watch and Nathan nodded to himself.

"It was right." He smiled.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 TH

"Damon." Stefan whispered as he stared at Vida, trickles of a fluid leaking from the sides of her mouth as she suckled on Damon.

Damon looked at him dazed and gave a small smile of relief. He almost looked stoned.

"Stefan, give him a minute." Nathan said cautiously and Stefan turned to look at him, his eyes narrowing as the urge to kill him began to fade. "She needs him."

Stefan turned back to look at Damon again.

"What's happening?" He croaked and moved slowly towards them, his two loves.

Damon seemed oblivious to anything but Vida. Stefan reached them and got on his knees again. Vida opened her eyes for a second and saw him, then closed them peacefully again. Stefan reached out and touched Damon's shoulder. Damon looked to him, dazed still.

"Is she feeding?" He asked and Damon gave a slight frown of confusion. "Damon?"

_Are you breastfeeding?_

Damon's eyes widened as he heard Stefan channel and he looked down at his daughter again, as though understanding for the first time what was happening. He frowned again and tilted her away from his chest, separating her mouth for the food source. She opened her eyes and began to cry, her eyes tingling. Stefan reached down and touched Damon's chest, tracing his finger in the fluid seemingly coming from both nipples. Damon touched his free nipple too and made a sound of fear.

Stefan tasted the fluid and gave a moan of satisfaction. It was the same fluid Damon had produced before but this time it tasted unbelievable. Damon made a sound of fear again and Stefan cupped his jaw and made him look at him.

_It's for her. Love. Family._

Stefan channelled and Damon blinked. Vida began to kick her legs and wail and Damon looked down at her face again. He tilted her back towards him and lifted her chin to get at his chest again. She latched on and began drinking once more.

"Is that..?" Nathan spoke nervously as he stood beside Stefan.

Stefan nodded.

"She wouldn't eat. She…She kept trying to tell me she was hungry." Nathan stared in awe as Vida curled into towards Damon's body wholeheartedly and fed.

Stefan shook his head and gave out a small chuckle. Nathan squeezed his shoulder in concern.

"All this time. All this time she was telling us." Stefan rubbed his face as he chuckled deliriously.

"Stefan…"

"She was starving because she needed him, what's coming out of him!" Stefan exhaled and Nathan looked to Damon again.

"Stefan?" Damon spoke and Stefan looked to him again, seeing a glimmer of recognition once more.

"I'm here." Stefan whispered and brought their faces together, setting his nose aside Damon's.

"I'm scared." Damon croaked and Stefan pulled back to cup his chin again.

"It's ok my black haired one. You're body needs this too. It's been changing for her. " He consoled "I just don't know why."

"Uh, Stefan." Nathan said full of discomfort and Stefan looked back at him. "I think I get what's happening."

"What?" Stefan asked desperately.

"I know about you two, you know – your soul. The mates told me. They thought I had to know to realise how to protect you during the fight."

Stefan frowned in surprise.

"If you two share a soul and he's rutting and you're not in heat anymore…maybe, that's what wrong." He swallowed down embarrassment.

"I don't understand." Stefan shook his head.

"You're not in heat anymore are you?"

"No."

"Maybe that's the problem." Nathan gave a small shrug and blushed.

Stefan looked to the ground as he processed that. They shared a soul. When Klaus had driven a compulsion wedge between them, their soul had split, but this was different. Neither of them were dying. Their bodies – well Damon's anyway, were changing again and they were out of sync.

"The heat and rut should coincide Stefan." Nathan added.

"But…" Stefan paused as Damon exhaled slowly again and scented Vida's head tenderly. "My heat won't happen again for months."

"I guess." Nathan said.

"You guess?!" Stefan snapped angrily. "So what are you telling me here? That Damon's going to stay this way until my next heat?"

Nathan exhaled and scratched his head.

Damon grunted and indicated to Stefan he wanted to stand and Stefan stood up and helped him. Vida was still feeding hungrily and no wonder. For days she'd been starving, desperately trying to tell them all that she needed only what Damon could give her. Why had this happened? Stefan guided Damon back into the hut and Damon sat back against the headboard of the bed and cradled their still, feeding daughter. Stefan watched for a few minutes in a daze. This was the craziest thing he'd ever seen. A man breastfeeding. He shook his head and frowned. He supposed it wasn't that far off feeding Vida blood from his neck, but still. If anyone should have evolved to do that, shouldn't it be him? He did birth her after all.

He exhaled and closed the door again, sitting out on the step and looking towards Nathan.

"Why?" He asked and Nathan came and sat down next to him.

"With you guys the weirdest stuff happens." Nathan commented and Stefan nodded.

"I don't get it. Any of it and his thoughts don't make sense."

"All I know, is that she was screaming for him and she was hungry. I just knew I had to bring her Stefan, I'm sorry."

They looked at each other and gave a stiff nod.

"Is it because we have a baby that he doesn't want me?" Stefan asked.

"No." Nathan shook his head confidently. "It doesn't work like that. There must have been something in him that knew he had what she needed to feed. That she needed him most, I guess."

"You don't have a mate or kids. What do you know?" Stefan huffed and Nathan clenched his jaw in pain at that.

"When guys I know have rutted, they tend to hold onto what is theirs fiercely. Of course, I haven't seen many ruts but any kids that are young enough – babies, like Vida are hard to separate from the guy. When they're this small and vulnerable the guys don't trust many pack members to intervene."

"Then how the hell is anyone safe?" Stefan grunted.

"Most of the time, combat reduces the rut enough for someone to remove the babies until it's over."

"Is this what we have to look forward to Nathan? Because it's so much worse than being a vampire." Stefan complained and put his face in his hands.

"Nah, man. It's rare in adults because they mate during heat."

Stefan shook his head sadly and Nathan exhaled loudly in frustration.

"Stefan, like I said, a heat neutralizes a rut."

"Great." Stefan croaked.

"Stefan, I don't think this is going to die down very quickly unless Damon has a partner in heat to resolve it." Nathan said gravely and Stefan stared at him horrified at the suggestion.

"What are you..?" Stefan began to growl and Nathan held up his hands in peace and interrupted.

"You're not understanding Stefan!"

"You want me to let Damon sleep with someone else?!" Stefan's eyes turned vampire and Nathan grabbed him by the shoulders and growled too.

"I'm suggesting you trigger a heat!"

Stefan stared at him in surprise. Nathan panted, removing his hands from his shoulders and chewed his lip regrettably.

"You can trigger a heat – it's an old tradition used for arranged bonds between packs."

"What?"

"If there's enough wolf in you, you might be able to."

"Have another heat?" Stefan croaked in horror.

"Yeah. If you do, his rut will be satisfied."

"But it's awful! Nathan you don't know how bad it is!"

"I watched you go through it in the beginning of the spell remember?" Nathan cupped his face. "You can do it. It will be intense and it might be…painful, you just have to relax ok? I'm worried that if Damon plays it out like this any longer, without a heat partner, that he might go mad Stefan. Sometimes, the wolf who ruts this bad, has a…"

"Mania." Stefan finished for him, remembering Klaus's words.

"Yeah. He's already showing weird signs of it. His thoughts don't make sense?" Stefan nodded in affirmation.

"If I trigger a heat, will it be the same?" Stefan asked, wide eyed and thinking of the desperation, the aching inside of him, the back scrub handle.

He shivered and Nathan gulped.

"I don't know what yours was like this time, but because it's triggered and not coming in your cycle, it will be more intense." Nathan said sadly and Stefan put his face in his hands again.

"Trigger." He whispered after a minute and rubbed over his abdomen absent mindedly. "I have a trigger."

"What?" Nathan frowned in misunderstanding and Stefan chewed his lip.

"I can release eggs when I want. Klaus said that. He gave me that." Stefan said numbly and then a light bulb went on in his head. "Damon said I had no eggs, that I was infertile."

Nathan huffed in anger and Stefan gave a smile of comprehension.

"It's because I used my trigger to prevent it during the heat. I stopped fertility."

"How?" Nathan asked, bamboozled.

"Compulsion. That's why Damon said that. He thinks I'm not viable."

Nathan exhaled and rubbed his hands together as he thought on that.

"That could make sense. If he's deep in the rut, there's no point in a sexual partner who isn't fertile." Nathan thought on the human guy he had slept with at the ending of the spell to stop both of them being drained.

He'd known instinctively that the guy wasn't a morphed version for the spell to impregnate him like the others. He was too human to evolve like that for a spell, but despite his wolf instincts telling him not to bother, he'd realised he might die if they didn't copulate. He looked to Stefan in agreement.

"Can you turn your system on?" He asked and Stefan grimaced.

"If I do that, it won't give me a heat, it'll just mean I'll be fertile for the next heat."

Nathan sighed and nodded.

"I can't leave him suffering like this. If we'd spent the heat just allowing ourselves to join then he would have been ok."

"What do you want to do?" Nathan pressed.

"I don't want another heat Nathan. I want it to stop." Stefan croaked, full of emotion and Nathan squeezed his hand. "But…he is mine and my body can save him from this. I need to do it."

"Then you have to use the traditional way." Nathan advised and Stefan turned to him, searching his face for answers. "I'm sorry Stefan." He apologised and Stefan frowned and opened his mouth to ask why, when Nathan lunged towards him and bit just under the corner of his jaw at his neck.

Stefan cried out in surprise and knocked him off, onto the ground. Nathan fell on his back and put his hands up in peace as Stefan stood up, holding the side of this neck in pain.

_What the fuck?!_

_Peace, Stefan. Had to._

"I've triggered a heat!" Nathan explained fearfully as Stefan's eyes tingled. "I'm sorry, it has to be done quickly."

Stefan rubbed at his neck, grimacing and Nathan stood up slowly.

"My saliva will react with the glands in your neck and it should trigger you."

"Why _you_? Why did _you_ bite me?!" Stefan growled.

"Because I have the ability of mind to walk away and not fight for you and I am unbounded. If I wanted you Stefan, you'd be in trouble right now but I don't. You're safe." Nathan warned and Stefan exhaled mirthlessly.

"You mean you'd be in trouble Nathan!"

"Yeah." Nathan nodded in admission and stood up again.

"How long?"

"Not long, a few minutes. I better get Vida." Nathan advised and Stefan gagged in rage but nodded.

He stood up and opened the door to the hut, looking in. Vida was passed out, asleep in Damon's arms with her hands hanging either side of her head and he was scenting her face. Stefan walked in slowly.

_Baby fed._

Stefan nodded, looking at her. Her breathing was very slow - much slower than normal. He moved to her and scented her face too, smelling her to make sure she was alright. Her heart was beating steady as usual, so she must be ok.

Damon's eyes widened as Stefan faced him. He sniffed.

_Stefan?_

_It's me._

_I need you._

_I know my black haired one. I can finish this with you. Baby needs to go._

"No." Damon whispered and Stefan frowned in annoyance.

_She needs to stay, protect, father…_

_Mating. Need to be alone._

_Needs me Stefan. Will want more._

Damon looked at her face and Stefan reached out and touched Damon's chest again. Perhaps she would need more. How could they do this though, with her here to care for? They would be back to square one again!

"Stefan." Nathan voiced from the door. "What is your gut telling you?"

Stefan rubbed his eyes and tried to relax and listen to his body.

"Trust it." Nathan encouraged and Stefan stood up and faced him.

"Get her bassinet." He instructed and Nathan obeyed, retrieving it from outside and bringing it in to him.

Stefan took it and moved it near to the bed, deliberating. Damon searched his face.

"I don't think she should be here if we are mating, but I…" he paused, "…I think we have to try this." He admitted.

"I'll feel you, if there's anything wrong." Nathan exhaled and Stefan nodded. "Stefan it won't be long. Prepare ok?"

Stefan nodded and Nathan closed the door.

Stefan turned back to Damon again and offered his arms out for Vida. Damon studied him for a second and then relinquished her slowly. She didn't bat an eyelid as she was moved and placed into her bassinet. Stefan tucked her in and moved the bassinet to the other side of the room. At least she wouldn't see them if she woke up. He stroked her face gently.

"I'm sorry I didn't understand angel." He whispered. "You tried to tell me. Both of you did and I just didn't know."

He turned back to look at Damon who was studying him. Damon was sniffing deeply, he must be smelling the change in Stefan's body already. Stefan moved back towards the bed and stood before him, allowing Damon to lean in and sniff him.

"It's coming. It's coming and we can finish this." He cooed and Damon frowned as he scented over Stefan's stomach.

"It's not right." Damon struggled and Stefan ran his fingers through Damon's hair. "Can't Stefan."

_I will hurt you._

Damon channelled and Stefan frowned and raised an eyebrow.

_No heat, no sticking. Will hurt you if try to stay inside. No eggs, no point, no sticking…_

Stefan exhaled in relief that he finally understood. Damon hadn't been saying he didn't want him, that he wasn't his mate, but rather that if Stefan's body couldn't perform like a heat and glue them together, Damon's instincts would drive him to attempt to force that. Stefan recalled Damon pushing in impossible deep when they'd attempted sex earlier. It had been painful and he hadn't realised that that was what Damon had been trying to do.

"I love you, my crazed maniac." Stefan cooed and Damon looked up at him remorsefully. "I understand now. My heat is returning for you."

"Stefan…" Damon struggled, "Run."

"Not happening. Lie down." Stefan commanded and Damon's eyes tingled as he felt a stray feeling of territorial anger again and Stefan felt it, pushing him onto his back and straddling him to hold him down.

Stefan growled and snapped his fangs and Damon lay back in surprise.

"You are mine Damon and I'm going to have you." Stefan growled and removed his t-shirt.

As he did so he felt the perspiration beginning to gather on his body and he touched his chest. He exhaled a little as he began to feel the little insects crawling under his skin again. What an unpleasant sensation it was. He scratched and exhaled when he felt a wave of heat come upon him. Damon stared up at him in wonder at the speed of the change.

Stefan rubbed his face and wiped his forehead. This was happening too fast. He groaned as he stood up and began to remove his jeans. Damon sat up too, sniffing. Stefan was semi erect as he pulled his jeans off and he looked towards Damon for aid. Damon immediately jumped off of the bed and went to steady him, licking around his neck and clavicle, tasting the sweat beginning to bead. Damon hummed and pulled back to stare in Stefan's eyes in surprise.

_Fertile?_

Stefan nodded. Damon grinned widely and Stefan listened to his thoughts become carnal and strange again. He had to be careful still. Damon wasn't himself and could still hurt him. He dropped his jeans to the floor and stepped out of them and Damon leaned into his neck and began to scent and place small bites.

_My mate, mine, almost ready, cooking…_

Stefan nodded and held his shoulders. He'd have to play this carefully and release his eggs to make this happen. He gulped as he thought on that. If he released them, they could get pregnant again and he didn't want that. If it was the only way to end this mania though…He had no doubt that if he didn't release them, Damon would smell this fake heat and wouldn't continue like before. Stefan just had to hope that a fake heat, despite eggs, wouldn't result in a baby.

He felt Damon grow hard against him and become a little more enthusiastic and so he threw him backwards onto the bed. Damon sat up in surprise and growled. Stefan was going to do this his way. Damon still had too much aggression and weirdness in him.

Stefan stalked over to him, growling and pumping his manhood and Damon stopped growling and watched him, licking his lips.

"You're not going to hurt me Damon." Stefan commanded and threw himself on top of his mate. "I'm going to fuck _your_ brains out."

Damon gasped as Stefan held his throat and squeezed a little.

"Mine!" Stefan growled and Damon stared wide eyed up at him.

Stefan rubbed their bodies together, feeling his stomach spasm slightly. It was very near. He leaned forward and captured Damon's mouth with his and Damon kissed back hungrily and tried to hold him to roll him over. Stefan pulled back and punched him, knocking his head back into the pillow.

"Mine!" Stefan reminded and Damon licked blood from the corner of his mouth in awe of how strong his mate was.

Stefan held Damon's wrists above his head and watched as Damon struggled. Stefan growled low in warning and rubbed his pelvis against Damon's manhood. Damon grumbled and Stefan gave a small smile as he felt his fluid trickle from his entrance. Damon inhaled sharply and tried to struggle more.

"Oh no, my black haired one. You only get some of it when I decide." He grinned.

_Want!_

Stefan shook his head and rubbed himself backwards and forwards again, stimulating Damon's erection and coating Damon's skin in his fluid. Damon began to pant and looked at him in desperation.

"Please, Stefan!"

Stefan raised an eyebrow and sat back fully, relinquishing Damon's wrists. Damon sat up slowly.

_Smell me._

Stefan commanded and Damon buried his nose in Stefan's chest, nosing his way down to his abdomen as Stefan concentrated on the trigger. He flipped it to allow his eggs to release and Damon gasped and began to lick his stomach.

_Right, it's right…_

_Hell yeah it is my black haired one. It is always right for you._

Damon made a sound of anguish and looked up at him.

_Stefan, what's happening to me?_

"Ssssh, it's ok. This is our heat." Stefan stroked through his hair again as he saw his Damon returning slowly. "Trust your gut. Trust me."

"I was so confused. You didn't smell right and I…I didn't…" Damon became teary and angry with himself.

"It's ok. It was your rut." Stefan leaned forward and kissed his forehead gently, scenting him there and Damon relaxed and held him around his bottom.

_Love you so much._

_I love you too Damon. It's all ok now._

Damon gyrated under him and Stefan pushed on his chest to get him to lie back down. Damon did so, searching his face.

"We're in sync now. All the thoughts and pain will stop." Stefan comforted and Damon nodded gratefully. "Be with me, here." Stefan pressed over his heart and Damon swallowed.

Stefan lifted his hips and slid down onto Damon's manhood. Damon sighed as though it was the most exquisite pleasure he'd ever experienced. Stefan gave a chuckle and filled himself full before opening his eyes again. They linked hands and fingers and Stefan began to move, feeling the burning and heat in his skin grow hotter. He panted, feeling his body respond quickly and force him to ride his mate. It felt as though he was running from a spasm, a big one and he rode Damon desperately. Damon held his hips and moaned too.

"Oh god, I have to…" Stefan choked and leaned further over him, placing his hands on either side of Damon's head.

He began to move vamp sped, slamming himself down on Damon's body and Damon opened his mouth and tilted his head back at the intensity. The milking followed and they both began to cry out and pant together.

_Please let this work, please, please_

Stefan chanted and he sat back upright again as he felt the huge climax take both of their breaths away. They both shouted and grabbed at each other as Damon pushed in deeper and locked them together. Stefan yelled out and wilted and Damon steadied him as they stared at each other.

Damon's eyes changed to a gold colour and Stefan gasped in fear.

"Damon!"

Damon stared up at him, eyes glowing and grabbed Stefan too as he searched his eyes.

_Gold, mated._

Damon channelled and Stefan touched his own eyes, feeling no different but realising that his eyes must be gold too. They continued to stare at each other, marvelling at how their eyes sparkled and glowed, until small bursts of climax robbed them of the ability to think as Damon surrender more of his seed inside.

Damon tilted his hips, asking for permission to move and Stefan sagged into him, allowing Damon to turn them over carefully onto their sides. They were still joined together and would be for a while, but Damon was so careful when turning them, that there was no pain for either. Damon spooned him and began to scent Stefan's back, sending stray animal promises of good cubs and protection. Stefan wanted to laugh at how animal the thoughts were but he allowed his inner wolf to glow and absorb them happily for a while. He relaxed and Damon slung his arms around his stomach to hold him their protectively.

Maybe another cub wouldn't be so bad.

Stefan opened his eyes as he thought that and huffed. No. No more. He shook his head and Damon bit playfully.

"You with me?" Stefan whispered as his eyes drooped.

"Definitely." Damon rocked into him, causing him to gasp in pleasure at the sensitivity again.

"You have milk now." Stefan yawned, thinking on it and Damon paused for a second, his mouth on Stefan's shoulder as he considered that.

"She won't need any more for ten hours." Damon said, sounding a little dazed again.

"How do you know?" Stefan turned his head to see him.

Damon shrugged and frowned. Stefan blew out a breath and gave a chuckle.

"Why would you be able to? What happened?" Stefan took the opportunity to ask while Damon was still thinking animal.

Once they were back to normal, Damon would probably freak out about this breast-feeding thing and he wouldn't know any more than the rest of them, why it had happened.

"So we can be alone."

"What?"

_No pack. Just three._

Damon channelled nonchalantly and began to scent Stefan again. Stefan relaxed into him. Vampires weren't pack animals for sure. They were more solitary. So, in order for them to be able to have heats and still care for a baby, one of them had to be able to nurse. Why nurse though?

_Good milk. Makes her sleep through._

Damon channelled and Stefan did chuckle then. Damon thinking like this was actually quite cute really.

So Damon's milk was to make her sleep undisturbed while they were in heat. She'd be safe and unaware while they were busy. He chuckled again. That was the perfect solution for them. They didn't want to hand her over to the pack while they mated. It wasn't natural for them. Why Damon though?

_Damon. Why you and not me?_

_Painful._

_What is?_

_Making milk. Not for you, not for you._

Stefan turned his head again and searched Damon's eyes.

"It hurts?"

Damon nodded and grimaced a little.

_No more pain for Stefan._

Stefan exhaled and let his eyes fill with tears. Damon frowned and scented his cheek, cooing to comfort him.

"I didn't think I could love you any more than I already do." Stefan shook his head.

_Sleep mate. Heat._

Damon channelled and Stefan nodded and relaxed again, closing his eyes peacefully for the first time in almost a week.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 TH

Stefan felt his skin burn and he tossed and turned in discomfort. His body stuck to the sheets, reminding him of the perspiration coating his skin.

"Mhnn." He grunted and opened his eyes feeling dehydrated to the extreme.

Damon's face appeared above his and he huffed again at the heat.

_So beautiful, my mate._

Damon channelled and rubbed their noses together. Stefan's loins reacted and he groaned and tilted his pelvis up. Damon kissed him softly, making cooing noises at the back of his throat. He pulled his face away and left Stefan trying to sit up. His body felt like a dead weight and his head was almost spinning. Fake heat. That's what this was doing to him, overcompensating with all of the symptoms. Nathan had said that a fake heat could be triggered to help with packs bonding. Obviously it had to be intense and brief to seal a union and convince the alpha male that the partner was viable.

He groaned again and reached down to relieve some of his discomfort, taking his manhood in hand and pumping it. His hand was removed and replaced by a word mouth and tongue and he gasped and tilted into the heat of it, into the motion of Damon's tongue. He moaned loudly and wiped his face as sweat trickled down from his brow. Damon scented his sex with care and kissed over his abdomen as Stefan writhed.

Damon lay on top of him and scented his face and under his jaw, making him tilt his head back. Damon's tongue was cold and fabulous against the heat in his skin. Stefan practically purred like a cat as Damon cooled him down. The cramps would start soon though. He opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling, sighing in comfort. Damon continued down his body, tending to him and now pumping his manhood too, to help stave off the discomfort to follow. Stefan smiled widely and gyrated as he did so. Damon bit playfully over his chest, making him chuckle and then returned to his face to search his eyes.

Stefan pulled him down to his mouth and they kissed deeply this time. Stefan slid his hand down between their bodies and took a hold of Damon's erection, stroking in time with him. They'd practised before their heat, doing just this, but this time they would enjoy the full experience of it.

Damon pumped harder and Stefan gasped but chuckled, doing the same to him. Damon raised his head and they looked into each other's eyes as they began to pant and squirm at each other's touch. Stefan's entrance flooded with fluid and he began to struggle as his body tingled with the oncoming climax. He opened his mouth a little and Damon grinned, sealing their mouths together and using his tongue to reduce Stefan to a shaking panting mess. Stefan's climax hit him like a freight train and he broke away from Damon's mouth to shout out and arch his body. Damon kissed into his neck and slowed his hand movements.

Stefan's body twitched as he breathed. He looked over to the bassinet. No sound from her at all. He smiled and exhaled relaxed. Damon kissed down his body again, scenting him with a warm tongue and he closed his eyes in comfort. Damon paused over his abdomen and began to lick in long lines there, rubbing his nose along the tingling skin. Stefan lay his hand over his head and twisted his fingers in Damon's locks lovingly. Damon was obsessed with the smell inside of him.

_So fertile. Strong cubs. Beautiful babies._

Damon's thoughts made Stefan smile and stretch. Yes, they did seem to have that combination of genes. Vida was going to be a knock out when she was grown. Stefan looked over to her bassinet again and Damon raised his head and looked over too.

_Our baby._

Stefan channelled to him and he kissed Stefan's abdomen again. They both looked over to her corner as she sighed loudly and made a small movement. Damon sniffed and Stefan watched him, watched as Damon scratched his chest.

_Milk?_

Stefan channelled and Damon grunted. Stefan looked to his chest fascinated. It was feeding time. He wanted to see it all this time, be part of it. He sat up and Damon looked to him.

_Want to help._

Damon searched his face a little confused and Stefan brought their faces together and rubbed their noses side by side. Damon leaned into him and nodded. Vida made a small gurn and Damon rose, getting off of the bed and moving to her. Stefan watched. Damon lifted her from the bassinet and she opened her eyes just a tiny crack. She seemed to still be sleeping but somehow aware that it was time to feed. Damon deliberated for a moment and then brought her back over to the bed. Stefan moved further in towards the middle, moving their soiled blanket nest aside and Damon climbed onto the bed and sat against the headboard.

Stefan kissed his shoulder and helped him position the evidently sleeping baby onto his chest at the right position. She exhaled and opened her tired eyes again and Damon nuzzled her and cooed. She opened her mouth slowly and he tilted her to his nipple. She latched on and began to feed slowly. Stefan watched closely as her body seemed to relax completely and lie in Damon's hold. There was nothing more amazing that watching this, the complete trust and devotion she had for them both. Stefan scented her head and stroked her back and she made some sounds of acknowledgement.

Damon exhaled and Stefan looked to his face. There was an almost imperceptible expression there. The nearest emotion Stefan could attribute it to was utter peace and contentment – he'd seen something similar on the faces of monks in Thailand when he'd been travelling through there years ago.

_What does it feel like?_

Damon blinked and looked to him.

_Love. Love for her._

_Does it hurt?_

_A little, but feels good too. Satisfying._

Stefan looked down at his chest again. So strange to see the same tight and well formed muscles there – no change in their appearance and yet they had milk. Stefan shook his head and touched the free pec. Damon lay his head back and closed his eyes, happy to allow Stefan to explore. It was odd. Damon's need in this rut was to breed his mate, to have as much of his seed inside of Stefan's belly as possible and yet, his body also needed _this_ too. Did that make them both hermaphrodites now? At least it would mean they'd be the same again –kind of. Yin and Yang. He was sure Damon would freak after all of this, so he needed to capture all of this amazing ability in his mind now so he could replay it for him later with a memory share.

The longer Vida suckled and Damon cooed to her softly, encouraging more, Stefan felt his body respond amorously. It was arousing watching how well Damon could nurse their cub. It made him want him. He shook his head and buried his face in at Damon's neck to scent there. The wolves had no idea! There wouldn't be the same mating rules for them. Clearly they both provided functions for growing babies and caring for them, so heats would be very different from on.

He grew hard as he scented Damon's neck and he channelled feelings of desire to him. Damon hummed a little and turned his head so they could kiss. Stefan leaned into him a little deeper and captured his mouth hungrily. He wanted him, wanted to lick at his chest and taste all of him, taste the life giving milk he was producing, drink from him and have him. Damon seemed to sink into the headboard a little.

Vida, as though on cue, stopped suckling and exhaled sleepily, her lips loosening their hold on Damon's nipple as her head fell back into the crook of Damon's elbow. They broke apart their mouths and looked down to her. Stefan's body vibrated, itching with lust and he scented her face to make sure she was full and sleeping. She closed her mouth and exhaled again and he took her carefully out of Damon's arms, crossing over to her bassinet again and laying her inside.

He looked back to Damon, who was yawning now and he gave a small growl. His erection was jutting out now.

_Want you._

He licked his lips and Damon looked at him. Stefan knew that usually a heat/rut was for breeding and so Damon should want to be on him, in him all of the time like during the spell, but there was no fighting the desire pooling in his stomach. This show of tenderness and ability to provide for Vida, had turned Stefan on so much that he had to be inside. Rules of breeding be damned.

He blurred to the bed and lay on top of him. Damon lay back in surprise – his thoughts a little jumbled as he tried to figure out why he wasn't the one aching with an erection. Stefan cooed at him and slid his hands under Damon's bottom.

_Different for us. We are unique. We are the same._

Stefan channeled and Damon frowned a little and made a sound of confusion.

_Need to impregnate…_

Stefan chuckled and took Damon's hand, placing it on his stomach.

_Full. Full of you._

Damon's eyes widened and Stefan kissed him gently, sliding his hands to caress his rear. Damon seemed to understand that he was still performing his duty to breed and could relax. He sat up and deepened their kiss, holding Stefan around his back.

_Just need to check._

He grunted and Stefan chuckled into his mouth and nodded. Damon pushed him back down onto his back softly and Stefan opened his legs lazily and smiled at him. Damon's look of concentration was hilarious. He wished he had a camera to capture it. Damon's hormones still demanded that he check he'd done his biological duty before they could continue.

Damon sniffed over his stomach and Stefan exhaled relaxed and hummed. Damon seemed content and moved down to scent Stefan's sex, which was struggling to wait to be inside. Damon licked the length with a growl of appreciation, which had Stefan chuckling again. He then opened Stefan's legs wider and sniffed his entrance, checking he could smell enough of his own seed in there.

_See? Full._

Damon hummed satisfied and began to lick Stefan's fluid. Stefan's breath caught in his throat and he gyrated. He tilted his head back and grunted. He wanted both sensations, to be penetrated and licked like this but also to pin Damon beneath him. Wonderful to be able to have both, but conflicting. He moaned as Damon pushed his tongue inside and he fisted some of Damon's hair.

Wait a minute, he knew what Damon was doing. He was doing this on purpose to get Stefan to beg to be filled again. He shook his head a laughed through a gasp and yanked Damon's hair to lift his head. Damon frowned at him and he laughed again.

_I want your insides._

Stefan gave a growl and let his eyes change to wolf again. He felt the subtle difference from the tingling that came with vampire hunger to the hunger and lust of his inner wolf. He was beginning to understand the wolf side a little better with each time they joined. It was coming to the forefront. He launched himself on top of Damon and pinned him, biting in at Damon's neck to hold him down as he growled in demand. Damon fought a little, trying to roll them over and Stefan bit a little harder. Damon grabbed at him and they fell off of the bed onto the floor. Their bodies separated and they both grinned and crouched ready to spring.

_You want me? You'll have to pin me down._

Stefan channelled in challenge and let his fangs protrude. Damon grinned widely and licked his lips, his teeth also sharpening. This was going to be fun!

Damon sprung first in his predictable fashion and Stefan blurred away chuckling. He knew Damon's moves. Damon chuckled, delighted and stood on two legs, demonstrating his pleasing, aroused manhood.

_Are you showing off your goods my black haired one? Hmmn._

Stefan cocked his head, in a very wolf like fashion and chuckled. Damon's eyes were gleaming with confidence.

_I'm not sure. Not sure._

Stefan gave a little snort and Damon's face fell. He recovered after a few seconds and lunged for him again, this time catching Stefan's legs as he moved and dragging him along the floor back towards him. Stefan kicked back at him, twisting onto his front and Damon jumped on him, sticking his tongue right inside of Stefan's entrance and growling in desire. Stefan's head spun for a moment, enjoying the licking and then he decided to apply one of Damon's other tactics, one of his old ones. He tilted his rear and made a whining sound and Damon relaxed his hold a little, burying his tongue inside deeper and Stefan pushed himself backwards, throwing Damon back and kicked him hard in the chest.

Damon fell onto his back coughing and Stefan got on his feet again grinning. His fluid was now leaking down his thighs and he knew it would entice more competition. He'd have to be quicker and smarter.

Damon got onto his feet again and grinned. They both flushed with desire and became hard, both erections growing as they stared at each other. Stefan moved to grab him from the side and they tumbled over, grabbing at each other and growling, scratching each other's backs and trying to bite to pin down. Damon twisted Stefan's legs up and entered him and Stefan moaned loudly. Damon began to thrust quick and deep in determination and Stefan writhed and whined in pleasure. Damon relaxed a little as Stefan's body arched for him, submitting and then suddenly he was on his back, his head hitting the wall as Stefan jumped on top of him and threw his legs to either side of his waist. Damon opened his mouth to growl and Stefan plunged his manhood inside of him and held his chest down again.

Stefan's flexed his hips to make Damon cry in pleasure and Damon tried to fight it, tried not to succumb. Stefan held him down by his throat now and choked him a little, biting in at his neck to feed and start the blood wave as he pulled Damon's pelvis deeper to impale him with his member.

"Stefan, Stefan..!" Damon whined, somewhat in defeat and in need also and Stefan sped up, shaking the floorboards beneath them and rattling the broken pieces they'd both put their fists through in frustration earlier.

Stefan's triumph went to his head quickly and as Damon squirmed and moaned, he lost his control and climaxed with a loud shout. He'd never climaxed so quickly before! Damon held him tenderly and scented his neck and shoulder as Stefan lay his face down and sank his body onto Damon's chest.

Stefan closed his eyes and hummed. Damon bit playfully and rocked his hips until Stefan's manhood slid out and lay soft against Damon's hungry one. Damon slowly rolled them over and began to scent Stefan's body meticulously. Stefan fell into a dream and relaxed.

Damon cleaned him, enjoying the fluid settled on Stefan's thighs. He raised each leg one at a time to gain entry to scent there and finished by biting at the artery to feed. Stefan was the world. Stefan's penis could make him scream and he loved it, loved that it didn't make him feel weaker for wanting it. Love what Stefan could do with it. The way Stefan could flex his body to get at the right spots was unbelievable. Stefan's fluid tasted like a golden elixir too. He was perfection.

Stefan dozed off and Damon kissed around his stomach, smelling his seed and eggs in there. Hopefully they'd be pregnant again in a few hours so Stefan could make another baby. More. So many more. All as beautiful as Stefan was. Strong, fast and caring. More daughters. He smiled to himself at the thought and lay down beside his mate, holding him and encouraging him to wrap his arms around him. Stefan turned onto his side and did just that, laying his face in at Damon's neck and sighing. The whole room smelled of roses. God they were both ripe and potent.

The wolves must be able to smell it. He closed his eyes thinking on their power play. He liked it. Part of their vampire nature was to play with prey, to hunt and he guessed that was equally matched by their wolf nature too. Strange to think of their inner wolves coming out. He'd wanted to keep all of that at bay, but it was impossible. When he thought about it, it was more a part of their bodies than the vampire element. After all, they had been born potential wolves. It was part of their DNA. A vampire had just gotten to them first. Now they were playing catch up with instincts which they should have grown to experience normally. He wasn't going to hide from that anymore.

He lay thinking for a while as Stefan slept soundly. His head was beginning to clear from the fog it had been. He'd felt confused for days and days. What had happened during that time? He remembered bits and pieces – Ian trying to talk to him, building this hut unsuccessfully a few times. Stefan going into heat while away from him.

His eyes widened. He'd gone after that wolf – the one he'd smelled on Stefan's arm. He gulped and exhaled trying to remember. Had he killed him? He just remembered feeling angry, angry and territorial. John had had his baby nearby and she had been crying. He shook his head as he struggled.

He remembered blood and then being dragged away as Vida cried and reached her little hands out for him. Nisha had been there too. He'd been dragged away. The pain of that separation from his baby had made him wild. He remembered lashing out and having to be chained.

Stefan exhaled in his sleep and squeezed him. He must be feeling some of Damon's gut wrenching emotion. Damon kissed his head and sniffed deeply in his hair comfortingly.

"Damon, calm down, listen! We can help! Just tackle us. Come on try it. Try and get us. It'll help make you feel better I swear. Vida's ok. Stefan's ok." – The wolf Ian had tried to get him to tackle, rather than pull at his chains.

What the hell was the point of that? Then they'd tried to entice him to join the game they were playing. He bit a few, injuring them and they muttered about him being too strong. Too dangerous. Bet your ass he was and he was going to rip them all apart and get his baby and mate!

He exhaled and squeezed his eyes closed, trying to calm down. It was over. Stefan stirred, nuzzling him and then Damon's heart stopped as he remember having Stefan, wrapping a chain around him to drag him closer while the wolves shouted at him frantically. Then Stefan's smell hit him and he wanted him. Had to enter him right there in the dirt so the other wolves knew Stefan was claimed. Stefan was his! He'd torn at Stefan's clothes though, forced him into the mud and hurt him.

He began to pant in panic as he remembered. The wolves were right. He had almost raped him. Oh god!

Stefan awoke to Damon's elevated heartbeat and lifted his head to look at Damon's face. Damon was pale and shaking as he avoided his eyes.

"What's wrong?"

_Guilt, self loathing. Oh god Stefan why are you still with me?_

"What?" Stefan cooed and cupped his jaw.

"I tried to rape you." Damon's voice was barely above a whisper.

Stefan's expression changed to understanding and he turned Damon's face towards him commandingly.

"No. You did what your body told you to do to protect me from being claimed by the other wolves. You're not to blame for anything you did Damon."

Damon exhaled and let tears roll down his face.

_Listen to me. You are a wolf now and you shouldn't have had to go through that. You didn't have control ok? They understand that._

_I tried to fuck you while they all watched Stefan. How the hell can you forgive that? Why are you even here with me when you can be with someone who isn't a crazed lunatic? When you can be with Nathan?_

Stefan bore his fangs and squeezed Damon's throat. Damon's eyes widened. This slightly scary new side to Stefan's forcefulness was so sudden, but not entirely unwelcomed. Damon choked a little and Stefan continued to growl.

_You are mine. Understand? Mine! You're the only one I want inside of me. We_ _**are** _ _animals now and every fuck up we make, we take the consequences together. We learn from them and don't hide anymore._

_But it was me who…_

Stefan squeezed his throat harder and made Damon gasp.

_Stop talking and fuck me, mate. Time to make amends later. Not now._

Damon searched his face in utter disbelief and Stefan reached between them and began to rub Damon's manhood.

"I am your wolf and I am in heat _for you_. I'm aching for you. Are you going to lie and cry about things we couldn't control or are you going to bend me over?" Stefan growled softly in a dangerous tone.

Damon gasped as his manhood hardened. Stefan was so forceful, so animal. He liked it. Stefan removed his hand from his throat slowly, dragging it down Damon's chest.

_Catch me and fuck me. Stick inside me so I can't escape._

Stefan grinned in challenge and Damon's blood boiled. Talk about primal. Stefan wanted the chase. Damon shot up onto his feet and tackled him. They rolled around biting at each other and trying to overpower. They were both so strong they ended up rolling around and punching each other, laughing and licking at the blood spilled. Stefan was quicker in bending Damon over and entering him but Damon repeatedly got out of his hold and threw him to the floor. The more they crashed around, the more they laughed and began to kiss in between each assault, pinning each other down to kiss and bite seductively while the other managed to enter the one pinned. Both of their bodies glowed from the brief moments of joining, until Damon began to tire a little. Stefan was so fast. He made a quick lunge and Stefan ducked and elbowed him in the back, making him fall to his knees and grunt.

He'd knocked the wind out of him. As Damon gasped, trying to drag air in, Stefan bent him over and climbed on top of him, eagerly biting into the scruff and holding his wheezing mate down.

_Predictable my black haired one. So predictable. Now I'm going to fuck you for the second time today._

Stefan pushed his manhood inside and Damon cried out and panted. Stefan wasted no time, getting his rhythm going and sliding his arms around to Damon's stomach tenderly. Damon grunted a little in defeat but began to moan and gyrate.

_Mine, my strong mate. So fertile._

Stefan channelled, taking a hold of Damon's manhood and pumping it. Damon made a few small whines of pleasure and opened his legs wider.

_Feeder of cubs. So strong. Full of milk._

Stefan loosened his hold on the back of Damon's neck as he began to moan and drool onto Damon's skin. Damon's erection began to leak and grow even larger and Stefan changed his angle, pushing Damon further head-down so he could penetrate deeper. Stefan slammed in and out of the tight heat and Damon climaxed into his hand howling in pleasure. Stefan panted and grunted, feeling his aching entrance pulse and he removed his hand from Damon's empty manhood and plunged his fingers into himself. He moaned wildly and climaxed inside of Damon, almost weeping.

Damon breathed, listening to Stefan's climax and he gave it a second before he rolled them over, taking Stefan by surprise. Stefan fell under him, still with his fingers in his own entrance and Damon opened Stefan's legs wide and tried to grab his hand away. He would need another minute before he could be hard so he would have to hold Stefan here in this position. Stefan read his mind and brought his knees up high to his chest in offering and Damon smiled and leaned down to kiss him when Stefan kicked him like a kangaroo and sent him falling back across the room onto his back. He coughed again and groaned.

_Enough Stefan please. Want to stick inside now._

Damon had enjoyed the fighting but he was tired now and wanted completion. Stefan however had one last motivation before that happened.

Stefan was on him like a flash, pinning him down and attacking Damon's nipples with his mouth and fingers, stimulating them desperately.

_Want to taste. Give me some. Give me some._

Damon arched, feeling his body vibrate at Stefan's yearning. The milk wasn't for Stefan, it was for cubs. It was food, not for sex. Still, Stefan sucked and licked determined and Damon's nipples sensed the change in the attention. Stefan bit down on one, making Damon cry out and Stefan inserted his fingers into Damon's entrance again. He bent his fingers upwards to stroke his prostate and Damon began to curse in mumbles and struggle with the pleasure.

_Give me some. My mate, my body, everything mine._

"Stef…" Damon whispered desperately and then he shuddered, feeling some milk being drawn out.

Stefan held him tight and sucked. Finally, something came out. The sweetness of it, hit Stefan's tongue and he immediately stopped the movements with his fingers inside of Damon but held them inside in ownership of Damon's body. Damon arched and made small moans and gasps. Stefan licked appreciatively and lifted his face, seeing the other nipple leaking too. He licked at it eagerly. It was wonderful and nutritious. He could feel the power in it. His body felt stronger. If Vida was drinking this in large amounts she would be strong and healthy.

His eyes filled with tears as he thought on what an amazing gift this was for her. He looked at Damon's face in pure love. Damon opened his eyes and looked at him.

_Love. Chest bursting love Damon._

_Love._

Stefan slowly licked the last of the milk and placed a small kiss on each nipple in thanks. He wouldn't take any more. It was for Vida. Damon hummed, hearing his thoughts and slid his fingers into Stefan's hair softly. Stefan moved to his mouth and they kissed slowly, wrapping their limbs around each other and caressing.

_Please little blood machine?_

Stefan nodded chuckling and allowed Damon to roll him over gently. Damon pumped his manhood for a few seconds, kissing Stefan as he did so and Stefan opened his legs wide and relaxed.

_Breed me._

Stefan channelled seductively and Damon's eyes flashed gold once again. Stefan felt his change too and he tilted his neck for a bite. Damon lay his mouth into the side of his neck and bit down to drink. They both felt the blood wave flood them and they curled into each other. It was satisfying to delay the completion of joining like this. The fighting and chasing had heightened everything.

Damon entered him carefully, reverently and they began to move together, Stefan rocking his hips up into every thrust as they shivered and whispered each other's names in ecstasy. Their bodies were desperate and ready so the milking began every quickly. They both shuddered and held each other tight as Damon began to grunt and moan into the motion.

_Now I'm milking you. All for me._

Stefan panted and Damon lay his face in at his neck as they both climaxed and shouted. This climax was like a tidal wave – huge in the first waves and then continuous as the smaller waves hit afterwards. Stefan became vaguely aware that the sounds escaping their mouths had escalated from shouts to howls – wolf like howls. Then, Damon was pulled in deeper and they fell silent. Sealed together.

Damon sagged into him, passing out and Stefan exhaled noisily and wrapped his legs around his back. They were one, wolf and vampire.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12 TH

Stefan awoke to the happy gurgling sounds of Vida. She was chattering almost, making sounds that sounded like letters. He opened his eyes in surprise and saw Damon's peaceful face asleep beside him. He smiled and stretched. God they must look terrible. They were both dirty from having been on the floor and covered in dried in blood where they had fought and had bitten each other. Still…it was hot and had been totally worth it.

He checked his entrance, pleased to find it didn't hurt and he sat up, checking the rest of his body. Other than badly being in need of a shower, he was ok. Vida continued to make sounds, as though she was having a conversation with someone and he slowly rose from the bed and went to her. He looked down into her bassinet and she gazed up at him and made a delighted squeal, raising her hands towards him.

"Sssssh angel. Daddy's asleep." He cooed and she giggled and sucked her foot, staring at him as she drooled around it.

He looked back to Damon. He was still sound. He lifted Vida up, shushing her and cradling her. His body was filthy though and he didn't want her soiled by the evidence of lovemaking. He chewed his lip. Reality had to hit home some time. He shook his head sadly. He had to waken him so they could get back to their lodge and wash.

Vida gurgled and sucked her fingers and he moved to the bed and lay her beside Damon. She rolled onto her side to face Damon and he gaped in surprise. She'd never done that before. She touched Damon's face with a saliva soaked hand and Damon opened his eyes and exhaled. She giggled and he blinked, reaching for her.

He looked up and saw Stefan beaming at him, watching and he gave an unsure smile.

_What's wrong?_

_Nothing, just enjoying watching you be daddy._

Stefan gave a chuckle and Damon smirked at Vida and raised an eyebrow. Good, he was definitely back to himself then. Smirking like an ass meant that without a doubt.

Vida squealed and he tickled her belly as Stefan sat down beside them.

"Do you have any more milk left to feed her? I think it's made her stronger. She rolled onto her side intentionally." Stefan asked and Damon paused, mid tickle as he seemed to recollect his new ability.

_Anxiety._

"Hey." Stefan leaned over and squeezed his shoulder. "You're body is amazing."

Damon gave a weak smile and chewed his lip as Vida began to babble baby talk at him as though she was telling him a story. Damon frowned amazed as he realised she was actually trying to mimic speech. Stefan chuckled.

"She seems…more alert. It must have been the milk. Her little brain was working while she slept." Stefan commented and Damon stroked Vida's head as he considered that. "Do you have any more?"

"Stefan." Damon sighed wearily and shook his head embarrassed.

"Damon, you gave her what she needed. What we needed."

"I'm not a woman." Damon clenched his jaw mortified and Stefan sighed.

"Neither am I and I grew her." Stefan consoled and squeezed Damon's arm again. "You've just spent days trying to breed me because you can and I'm still me."

"It's not the same." Damon grunted, scratching his chest in memory and Vida gazed at his chest as he did so. "This is creepy Stefan."

"You feed me from your neck. You feed her too. Already we live off of your blood. So what if you have milk too?"

Damon sat up huffily and turned away from them both, rubbing his eyes. Stefan looked down at Vida, giving him some time to process. Vida rolled onto her stomach and struggled. She might be stronger but she couldn't quite support herself yet.

Damon touched his chest, feeling the texture around his pecs – expecting to feel a change. Now that he was thinking clearly he began to feel fear at the prospect that he might grow breasts. He didn't think he could cope with a mutation like that. For the most part, Stefan's transformation was invisible on the outside. What was going to happen to him?

Stefan felt fear vibrate from him and lifted Vida, who was now fussing because she couldn't raise herself on her hands yet. He positioned himself behind Damon and kissed the nape of his neck as he patted Vida on his shoulder.

_Everything that changes us, changes us together – just like always. Your body can only do it because I needed it to. Because she needed it._

Vida fussed unhappily and Damon turned to take her from him, nervously. He held her out to look at her face and she gazed at him expectantly.

_What the fuck am I going to do?_

Damon fretted and Stefan cooed behind him and slid his arm around his stomach.

"It's an amazing gift for her." Stefan whispered and Damon swallowed bile and held her against his chest.

It didn't feel as natural as it had been over the last few days so now his movements with her were clumsy and unsure. She panted excited and it helped him feel a little better. At least Stefan was behind him and not watching. He drew in a deep breath and tilted her into his nipple. She latched on and watched him as she suckled.

_There, you see how much she wants it? Only you can give her this, my black haired one._

Damon tensed a little as she squirmed and released his nipple again, fussing. He frowned.

"What's wrong angel?" Stefan asked from over his shoulder and she turned her head away and squirmed again.

Damon looked down at his nipples. They'd leaked before. They didn't seem to be now. He touched one after the other and felt nothing emerge. Huh?

Vida wriggled and cried, wanting to move around freely and Stefan slid out from behind him and took her, swooshing her around like an aeroplane, as Damon inspected himself. Stefan looked back at him after she had begun to giggle again.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. There's nothing." Damon looked at him perplexed. "There's no milk…anymore."

"It's all gone? She drank it all?" Stefan asked and Damon chewed his lip and shrugged. "Maybe it was just for the heat, until it was over. When your brain was all animal thoughts, you said it was so she'd sleep as we mated."

Damon rubbed his eyes again and looked around for clothing.

"More animal crap." He mumbled.

"Good animal crap this time." Stefan reminded and Damon huffed at him in disagreement and shook his head, standing up.

"If you wanna call almost raping you because I had a wolf hard on, getting drugged…"

"This isn't going to ever happen again Damon. I promise."

"You can't know that Stefan. Clearly as a wolf I'm an ever bigger Jackass than when I'm a vampire." Damon found his jeans and threw them on.

"You had a mania – just like Klaus said. That's what this was." Stefan huffed at him annoyed by his mood already.

"More shit to look forward to."

"Hey. Look at me." Stefan commanded and Damon hung his head and sighed in defeat. "This happened because we didn't have full sex, because I wouldn't let you release properly. It's my fault your brain resorted to a rut."

Damon turned to look at him, his eyes wide in surprise. Stefan swallowed and blushed.

"So if you're going to blame someone, blame me ok? If I hadn't been so busy worrying about myself this wouldn't have happened."

Damon's head spun. He didn't know what to say. Stefan lay Vida onto the bed safely and began to dress now too as Damon watched him in silence.

"You did it for her Stefan." Damon finally said and Stefan looked to him, full of emotion.

"Mostly, but… a lot of it was for me." Stefan admitted. "I didn't want to feel like you had power over me, that my body had power over me – just like always. I always have this thing inside me that controls me." He shook his head, too exhausted to explain his reasoning.

Damon sighed in understanding. Stefan had always been beholden to something – whether it be the crippling empathy he endured as a human that made him suffer so much when others were in pain, the bloodlust that came with being a vampire ripper or the new urges of needing to be bred, to be filled by a mate.

"We're both eternally cursed Stefan." Damon mused on his new transformation with unease.

Stefan gave him a small smile and sent thoughts of love along their connection.

"We're cursed together though." Stefan said and Damon exhaled, scratching his head and nodded a little.

Vida rolled over on the bed as they dressed and giggled happily as she tested her new muscles and Damon's mood finally lightened as he watched her. He scooped her up and scented her face and she wriggled.

"You need a bath stinky lady." He scrunched up his nose. "Dried milk smells nasty!"

Stefan chuckled and put his shoes on. He should channel to Nathan to let him know they were ok and that they would be returning to the camp. He centred his mind and pulled on their connection as Damon whispered to Vida and swung her around.

_Nathan, it's over. We are good. Coming back now._

He waited for a few moments, unsure how Damon would feel about Nathan's involvement. Damon didn't seem to have remembered all of what had happened while he was manic. Almost killing the others wolves was going to be a hard pill to swallow.

_We know._

Nathan channelled and Stefan could sense an element of humour in his response that he didn't understand. He frowned for a second and then shook his head nonchalantly as Damon turned to him.

"Ready?" He asked and Damon nodded.

Damon went out first, holding Vida and talking to her as Stefan stepped out and looked around. He'd almost expected some kind of ambush to check Vida was still alive, but no one was around. They walked together side by side back towards the camp. There weren't many people around which was unusual. Damon kept glancing around nervously. Did he remember how he had hurt the wolves?

Finally they reached their lodge and Stefan looked around again for people. No one. Had everyone left? He gulped nervously. He didn't want that. He didn't want them to be afraid of them. He liked all of them, they were part of this community…if it would continue to have them here after everything. Stefan had said that when he got Damon under control, he'd take him away. Strange that the more he thought on that, the most his chest tightened. He didn't want to leave yet. Now that he'd started to feel a little more like a wolf, he was ready to learn – fully and truly unlike before. He'd listen to them now.

Damon kissed the top Vida's head and inhaled her scent, almost as though he was preparing himself for something traumatic. Stefan opened the door to their lodge and halted in shock. The whole place had been kitted out with candles. He looked around in surprise and Damon pushed him inside to get past and stopped too. Someone had been here and they'd cleaned the whole place up, made it romantic. Why? After everything that they'd put this pack through…why would they do this?

They looked at each other and then Damon spotted a card lying face up on the fireplace mantle. He went over to it, slinging Vida onto one hip and opening the card between his fingers. Stefan closed the door and sniffed to detect who had done this. There were several different scents. He looked to Damon, now reading the card.

_What does it say?_

Damon looked to him.

"Welcome to the pack." He said sounding perplexed.

Stefan went over and took the card from him, reading it again and shrugging.

"Why now? After all of this?" Stefan asked and Damon shrugged too.

They sat the card back down and went into the bedroom. There were rose petals on their bed. Stefan huffed in amusement and went through to run them a bath. Damon sat Vida on the changing mat on the bed and undressed her as she fidgeted.

"You're all stinky. Stinky lady Salvatore." He joked with her and she drooled and shouted out a few mimicked letters at him as though she was protesting.

_We should bath her first._

Damon channelled as he smelled Stefan pour in essential oils.

_She'll be ok. Just Neroli and Mandarin._

"Hmmmn." Damon grunted unsure.

Stefan came back through, chuckling at Damon's over protectiveness and took her, indicating to Damon to undress and get into the tub.

"What about her?" Damon argued.

"We'll all get in together."

"Huh?" Damon frowned.

"Just go, daddy danger." Stefan laughed.

And so all three ended up in the tub, much to Damon's amusement. Thankfully the tub was large and Vida loved being the centre of attention. They washed her together and played until she fussed, hungrily. Damon's milk was gone – well and truly, despite him trying once more, so Stefan fed her from his neck. They cleaned themselves one at a time, passing her around until they felt more human and then got out together.

Damon dried lady impossible and lay her on her mat to dress her in a baby grow, while Stefan kissed his neck and dried him from behind. Damon was half way through buttoning her clothes when he paused in thought.

_What?_

Stefan kissed his ear lobe and into his neck and Damon channelled a hint of excitement and anxiety. He turned to face him, lifting Vida again and patting her back as she began to gurgle sounds again.

"What?" Stefan repeated.

"Stefan, I bred you."

The blood left Stefan's face as he realised. He could be pregnant again. How could he have forgotten that? Damon chewed his lip unsure.

"It wasn't a real heat." Stefan mumbled in vain hope and Damon looked at him unsure.

"You were fertile. I knew you were and I gave you everything I had."

Stefan gave a nod and placed a hand to his stomach.

"We need to check." Damon licked his lips and Stefan nodded. "Let's put her down for a bit.

Stefan sat down on the end of the bed and watched as Damon lay Vida down in her bassinet. Vida kicked her arms and legs about as he did so, unwilling to sleep.

"Sleep angel." Damon cooed. "Just for a little while." He promised and she stared up at him. "Sleeeep."

"Are you compelling our baby?" Stefan asked after a minute and Damon glared at him in disbelief.

Damon leaned down and kissed Vida between her eyes and her eyelids drooped a little.

_Sleeep baby._

He channelled at her and she frowned but closed her eyes after a few seconds. Damon stood back up marvelling at her. He moved away after a minute and stood before Stefan. Stefan looked anxious and afraid. His eyes huge.

"You don't want any more." Damon said softly and Stefan stared up at him, searching his eyes.

"No."

Damon seemed a little pained for a second and then straightened his face.

"You do?" Stefan asked.

"No, I…no." Damon stumbled and shook his head. "It's just hormones I guess. Animal crap."

Stefan nodded but didn't believe him.

_Lay back little blood machine._

Damon's eyes were gentle and Stefan lay back on the bed, trying not to clench his fists in anticipation. Damon kissed his chest and moved down slowly to his abdomen. Stefan held his breath. Damon sniffed there for a few seconds, moving around as Stefan counted every beat of his pounding heart.

"Anything?" Stefan asked breathlessly.

"Hmmn." Damon said non-committal.

_Need to check inside you._

Stefan opened his legs and brought his knees up to expose his entrance and Damon climbed between his thighs, tipping his head to sniff and lick there. Stefan couldn't help but hum and release fluid at the soft, gentle licking there. He shook his head and smiled at how insatiable they'd both become. They'd just had two bouts of heat driven sex for days on end and yet as Damon licked, he wanted him again. Damon wasn't ignorant to his desire either, as he teasingly inserted his tongue inside the widening entrance and gripped Stefan's legs wider apart.

Stefan began to pant and squirm, releasing more fluid and making Damon search deeper with his tongue.

"Uhhh! Damon you're going to have to…" he mewled and Damon stopped and pulled back to look at his face.

"Can't get enough of me huh?" He quirked and Stefan smiled.

"Well?" Stefan asked after a second to calm his body down and Damon sighed and looked to Stefan's abdomen. "Are we…is there..?"

"Empty." Damon said, still looking at his abdomen.

"We're not pregnant again?"

Damon gave a sad shake of his head and Stefan actually felt a little guilty and bad for him. Guess the urge to breed still took a while to dissipate after a heat. Damon looked as though he hadn't done his job properly.

"Hey. This last heat wasn't a real one. It was to end your rut." Stefan reminded. "I released eggs to entice you but I guess they weren't ready."

Damon nodded and gave an unconvincing smile.

"Hey." Stefan beckoned him on top of him and ran his fingers through his hair, holding his face close to his own. "You were incredible. You got in so deep, I thought you'd never get back out again."

Damon gave a small smile.

"You fucked me left, right and sideways. You filled me up so much I thought it wasn't possible for me to keep anymore inside. I could feel it." Stefan reassured.

Damon searched his eyes.

"You rocked my world." Stefan smirked and Damon did too, leaning down to kiss him deeply.

_Nothing wrong with you in that area my black haired one._

Damon grew a little more confident as they kissed and took over, sliding his hands under Stefan's back and tilting him so that he could slide inside of him. Stefan chuckled into his mouth and trembled at being penetrated. Damon was unusually slow.

_Want to make love, not for breeding._

Damon channelled and stroked over Stefan's skin, letting his fingers caress over every muscle in his chest. Stefan slipped his arms around Damon's back and lightly scratched there, enjoying how much Damon shivered when he did so. Damon slid in and out slowly, taking his time and thrusting carefully to make Stefan whimper in pleasure. It was almost virginal – the care he was taking. Stefan's fluid released in floods as he breathed and flushed, tilting up into Damon's sucking to his nipples and relaxing his whole body.

Damon changed his angle slightly, raising himself a little so that he could get inside deeper and Stefan gasped and kissed his mouth sloppily in encouragement. Damon picked up the pace a little, groaning in desire when he smelled the roses at Stefan's neck fill the room. He pulled back and pulled Stefan's pelvis onto his lap, keeping them attached while he did so. He continued to thrust upwards, deep inside and Stefan held onto the headboard as Damon took a hold of Stefan's erection and began to pump it too. Stefan flushed and panted, watching every movement. Damon stared into his eyes as he worked him and worked his own body into Stefan's.

After a few minutes, the bedclothes were slick with Stefan's fluid and Damon began to thrust and slam harder into him. Stefan opened his mouth to breathe and spread his legs even wider. Damon squeezed his manhood and held it tight as he thrust in quicker and climaxed inside with a shout. Stefan closed his eyes as he felt Damon's seed spill into him. He grinned and looked down at Damon again. Damon panted, red faced and then grinned sexily at him as he began his assault on Stefan's manhood again. Now that his attention was fully on Stefan, he worked his magic, using both hands. He pulled and squeezed, massaged and licked the tip, all the while staying inside of him and Stefan began to lose his mind, grasping at the bedclothes and writhing.

_Let go, little blood machine._

Stefan arched and yelled out in ecstasy as he climaxed floods of seed, all of over Damon's hands and Damon milked him until he cried out again and ripped the sheet under him. Damon thrusted a few more times, slowly and softly as Stefan tried to breathe and Stefan felt his milking begin inside. He looked down at Damon in amazement.

Damon began to move again, holding Stefan's thighs tight as he gave the last of his energy into the movement. Stefan's milking began, making Stefan climax from his manhood again in a scream and Damon was caught inside for a few minutes as every bit of seed left in him was taken. Damon lay his face into Stefan's abdomen as he recovered and Stefan ran his fingers through his hair.

_Sex with you never gets old. Why did you cum first before the milking?_

_I wanted to see if I could make you cum a few more times._

Stefan laughed.

_It worked._

_I got that from your screaming._

Damon chuckled against his skin.

_Need to wash again now._

_I left the bath in._

_Good._

Stefan nodded.

_What about her?_

_She'll be fine._

_Angel baby._

_The only one._

Stefan smiled in relief. No more babies. They'd just have to be carefully never to set a rut off again.

They slept for ten minutes and then had the remainder of their bath together, kissing and scenting each other. It was time to face the real world now. They should get dressed and go and see Nisha. Let her see that Vida was ok and thank them for everything they'd done.

They dressed in fresh, clean clothes and felt better for it. Vida awoke, grumpy but happy that they were both playful. They grabbed a few of her toys and play mat under their arms and went across to chap Nisha's door. She opened the door, beaming at Vida and welcomed them in. Stefan handed Vida to her as she cooed and Damon froze suddenly. He looked to him in concern and Damon blurred across the room to where Nathan was standing, pinning him against the wall and growling.

"You nearly shot me, you little bastard!"


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13 TH

"Damon!" Stefan shouted anxiously as Damon and Nathan stared at each other, both with a mixture of adrenaline and rivalry.

"Stop it! Now!" Stefan growled and Vida shouted a sound as though in agreement.

Her voice caught Damon's attention and he released Nathan with a shove. Nathan took a few deep breaths and kept his eyes trained on him.

_Brought you back to Stefan, alpha. Brought you your baby._

Nathan defended and Damon glared at him, trying to remember. Nathan sent him the memory of receiving a phone call from Constance to ask for aid. Damon had almost killed a few of the pack and he was running around in a bad rut – a danger to everyone.

Damon blinked and then stepped back and sat down, his face in his hands as he tried to recall.

"You ok?" Stefan moved to Nathan and squeezed his shoulder.

"I'm fine." Nathan said softly.

"I'm sorry, we're just…"

"Don't apologise for me Stefan!" Damon snapped at him and Stefan clenched his jaw.

"Fine. Then do it yourself." Stefan offered.

Damon huffed and got up from his chair, leaving the lodge with a door slam. Everyone looked on after him. Stefan exhaled and rubbed his face.

_Give him time._

Nathan channelled.

"He still seems hostile." Nisha spoke finally.

"That's not a rut thing. That's a personality thing." Nathan joked but smiled at Stefan respectfully.

"We've had more…mutations and changes. It'll take him time to get his head around it. He doesn't like not being in control."

"What kinds of mutations?" She asked eagerly, motioning for them all to sit down.

They sat around the fire, placing Vida on her play mat in the centre of them all. She cried out at Stefan huffily and channelled an image of Damon, pointing towards the door.

"Daddy will be back in a minute." Stefan answered verbally so Nisha understood what was happening.

"She seems bigger since the other day." Nisha said confused and Nathan nodded in agreement.

"She's more switched on." Nathan added and Stefan nodded.

"She's stronger. I guess our heat was good for her, helped her become stronger like us. By the way, how did you know we were ok?" Stefan turned to Nathan.

Nathan gave a quick chuckle and Stefan raised his eyebrows.

"No mistaking a mating howl Stefan." He tried to stop chuckling.

"A what?"

"You and Damon were howling like us. That generally only happens when the moon is out, or…" Nisha began to explain.

"When you're satisfying a heat." Nathan smirked.

Stefan blushed a little, remembering how loud they'd been.

"Would have heard you in New York." Nathan gave his shoulder a small punch of congratulations and Stefan gave an awkward smile.

"So, triggering your heat worked then?" Nisha asked and he nodded. "What did you do with her the whole time? I was so worried she'd starve."

Nathan and Stefan exchanged glances. Damon already felt exposed. He would hate others to know about his new ability. It'd make him feel weak and vulnerable. A vulnerable Damon was an explosive one.

"I, somehow I…" Stefan blushed and Nathan gave a small nod of encouragement. "I began to leak milk. I guess my body knew she needed it."

Nisha's mouth dropped open and she stared at him for a minute.

"You…breastfed?"

"Yeah. Well, I did grow her inside me after all. I guess it's part of me evolving." He lied.

"That's incredible!" She beamed and looked down at Vida, who was playing with her mobile but seemed a little bored by it.

"She slept through the whole thing on only a couple of feeds from me." He added.

"I could write a book about you two!" Nisha chuckled.

"I think Anne's got that one covered." Nathan smiled.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Damon found himself going for a run. He needed to vent some steam. Clearly he'd done some other major damage here and that's why they'd had to call for Nathan – 'Wonderwolf'. How humiliating. He ran for a few minutes before he bumped into Ian, who was also out running. Ian stopped and called to him and despite his intense urge to ignore the little runt, he knew he should at least try to be polite. The guy had saved his ass after all.

He slowed and stopped and Ian walked over to him. What the hell was he supposed to say? Gee, thanks for stopping me from raping my mate in front of you all, thanks for locking me up when you could have just let me have my baby to feed?

He sighed and Ian looked to him, almost sensing his thoughts.

"Look, you don't have to apologise."

"Well, thanks!" Damon gave a snort.

Ian huffed in surprise at how negative he was being. They fell into silence for a few seconds.

"Plenty of us have had a rut."

"Hmmn." Damon mumbled. "Look if this is part of your… 'Don't worry about it, this wasn't your fault, we've all been there'…speech, you can save it, alright?"

"It absolutely was your fault." Ian said annoyed and Damon looked to him in surprise. "I tried to talk to you, to explain what might happen but you didn't want to hear."

Damon opened and closed his mouth, unsure what to say.

"If you'd listened to me instead of puffing up your bravado, you would have known what was happening to you and you would have been able to come to me before it got so bad. Instead you ignored me, all of us actually, let your instincts get the better of you and almost killed everyone!" Ian said harshly and Damon took a step back from him, paling a little.

Damon avoided his eyes as he fought with the urge to simply tear the guy's throat out for daring to speak to him like that or apologise. Ian watched him, searching his face and exhaled, putting his hands on his hips.

"Adapt or die Damon. You get that now?"

Damon gave a stiff nod, but clenched his jaw at the thought of apologising verbally.

"You're one pig-headed son of a bitch aren't you?" Ian said and Damon glared at him. "It makes you stronger, I see that. They way you tossed us around like cabbage. If you could learn to control that, use it to help yourself, then you could be an alpha."

"So I can join your little group?" Damon snorted.

"Not this one. I think we've had enough of your mood swings here."

Damon paled again and felt his heart sink a little. Stefan would be disappointed. It was clear, Stefan felt a little more comfortable in his own skin finally and he wanted to really tune in and learn about being a wolf now. He would want to do that here.

"I know you suffered a lot, but you're not the only one here with grievances. Becoming a wolf wasn't the highlight of any of our lives. We had to kill to become this – just remember that." Ian pointed out.

"It's not easy being this way. At least you don't have to change with the moon." Ian added.

Damon looked to him with a little less aggression now.

"The moon is coming tomorrow night. That means that we'll need your help." Ian sighed, almost regrettably.

"What for?"

"Constance. She won't change because she's pregnant and she's close to the cub coming. Normally we relocate to our human families so that they can take care of our children, but we haven't been able to with your rut."

Damon sighed and scratched his head.

"You guys won't change. I need you to make sure she's ok during the nights."

"You want me to look after a pregnant lady?" He asked in disbelief. "Thought I was a pig-headed son of a bitch?"

"You are." Ian said cooly. "But you're a full wolf now, or as close as you're going to get. Now you completed your mating ritual for a wolf heat."

Damon blinked and remembered the card welcoming them into the pack. He frowned. Ian stepped forward.

"So if you're ready to act like a member of this pack, then prove it. Take care of her. We've sent the other little ones away already, but Constance can't be moved. She's too poorly."

"Poorly?" Damon said in disbelief, remembering the veritable temper and alpha-ness of the woman in question.

"She lost her mate when the hybrids killed Nisha's husband. Both men were out hunting when it happened. Nisha's husband made it back barely alive to tell us, but he…didn't survive the day." Ian paused grieved and Damon swallowed some pity for them all.

"Constance is on her own now. It's draining her a little. I think there are two cubs." Ian sighed as he considered it.

"You're going to trust _me_ to take care of your pregnant alpha?"

"I have no choice. Besides, I know how Stefan feels about being here. He knows you're not ready to leave for New York yet. You have to prove to the pack that we can trust you, that you're not just another vampire."

Damon felt the urge to defend his vampire nature when he stopped himself. The truth of it was that as a vampire, he wouldn't have blinked at the thought of killing them all. He'd probably have whistled all the way home and poured himself a brandy after doing it, but now…Oh god. Things really had changed. He could feel his body quake with his new found energy and senses. He was more than a vampire now, more than a wolf. Just more. Neither one appealed to him either. He couldn't be a vampire anymore because a lot of his identity as such was moot now – he only drank from Stefan so he didn't need to hunt anymore. He wasn't a wolf either – he couldn't change and become an animal with the moon. Add on top of all of that, he was somehow able to nurse now as well! He really was up shit creek without a paddle.

He rubbed his face, grunting in surrender to the fact that truly, he did need help. Whether the wolves could offer that, he wasn't sure but they were his best shot at it.

"Fine." He mumbled and Ian folded his arms and searched his face.

"Thank you." Ian said honestly and Damon gave a stiff nod and began to walk back towards Nisha's cabin.

Ian watched him for a while and then turned to continue his run. He needed to have everything all sorted for the change coming and make sure everyone was safe.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nathan kissed Vida's fingers as she screamed in delight and looked up at him. He'd taken to sitting her on his knee, facing him so he could bounce her. Stefan watched amused as she smiled widely and enjoyed the movement.

"She's definitely bigger, heavier." Nathan smiled at her. "Guess that milk was a miracle grow huh?"

"Yeah." Stefan smirked.

_What was it? Was it milk?_

Nathan channelled, unknown to Nisha, who was now starting a fire in the hearth.

_Kind of but much sweeter. It was like rocket fuel._

_Wow._

Stefan nodded and sat his feet up on the coffee table.

_How is he taking it?_

Nathan pushed.

_Not that well. He's too freaked out to talk about it._

_No wonder._

Stefan nodded.

Stefan sat more upright as he heard Damon's footsteps coming back towards the house. He looked at Nathan nervously and Nathan busied himself with helping Vida sit upright. She was almost there, just a little off balance.

Damon knocked on the door and Stefan frowned in amazement at his etiquette, considering he had stormed out earlier and usually didn't bother with manners. Nisha shared Stefan's look of surprise and went to answer, letting him back in.

"Hey." Damon said weakly and Stefan gave him a cursory nod.

_Alpha._

Nathan channelled to him respectfully but didn't look up from Vida as she giggled and fell forward onto his chest as he held her arms. Damon cleared his throat and Nisha offered him a coffee.

"Thanks." He accepted politely and she flicked her eyes over to Nathan and gave him a hint of command as she left the room.

Nathan hugged Vida to him, kissing her head as she squirmed and handed her over to Stefan. Stefan sat her in his lap against his raised knees, letting her fall into the small gap between his thighs so it was as though she was sitting herself. She instantly began to chatter sounds at him, as though she was excitedly telling him a story and he chuckled in wonder.

Nathan rose from his seat and motioned for Damon to follow him to the spare room to talk. Damon did so begrudgingly as he watched Stefan, hoping for a thaw in his icy attitude towards him. Nathan closed the door and turned back to him.

"You know Stefan can hear us no matter where we go, right?" Damon folded his arms across his chest defensively and Nathan rolled his eyes.

"Listen, I only came coz I knew you wouldn't ask for help until you were on your deathbed."

Damon smirked at his choice of words.

"I know you. Both of you and I knew you'd struggle here. You wouldn't even stay with me when I could have helped you learn about being a wolf." He said a little pained and Damon unfolded his arms and frowned a little.

He understood that Nathan hadn't wanted them to leave the Boarding House once he'd decided to stay in Mystic Falls, but he'd assumed it was because he had feelings for Stefan. Not because he felt abandoned.

"I could have helped you and some of this might never have happened." Nathan pointed out and Damon chewed his lip.

"We don't want to depend on anyone." Damon said softly and Nathan nodded, still seeming pained.

"We've been through so much together. I guess I feel like I'm redundant now."

"Self pity isn't very attractive you know." Damon tried to joke but it flopped miserably.

_Look, you know I hate all this feeling crap. Don't make me say it ok?_

Damon channelled, growing uncomfortable and Nathan nodded.

_I knew they wouldn't know what to do with you. When someone is such a danger to a pack they have to be eliminated. These wolves don't really know you. It wouldn't have taken much for them to dispose of you if you'd…if any more…_

Damon clenched his jaw and held his hand up to stop him. He knew he'd fucked up and caused horror and injury, blah blah blah!

Nathan sensed his annoyance at the constant reminder of the hurt Damon had caused in his state.

_What would you do if a vampire threatened the rest of you living somewhere?_

Damon snorted.

"Rip their head off. Simple, easy, done." Damon said with absolute certainty.

"So if you had been Ian?" Nathan prompted and Damon huffed and scratched his head. "Vervaining you was the only way to keep the situation under control, brother. I knew Stefan could fix you. He always can."

Damon looked at him, swallowing his emotion.

"They don't realise how deep your connection goes."

"Let's keep it that way." Damon said in a warning tone and Nathan nodded in agreement, which softened Damon once more.

Nathan took a seat and looked up at him, taking an unsure breath.

"I think you should stay for another heat here."

"What? Are you nuts?" Damon frowned.

"You need to see what a normal one is like. Then you'll be ready for it when you're in New York."

"No way!" Damon gave an uncomfortable chuckle.

"Damon, what about the others?"

"The wolves will be fine without my presence." Damon gave a wide, fake grin and Nathan shook his head.

"No, the mates Damon. They'll have heats too remember? If they haven't had any yet, then they're going to and you might be the only ones to help them figure it out. You have to make sure that this doesn't happen to them." Nathan pointed out and Damon sat down on the opposing bed and thought on that.

The other mates might have similar changes to them now too – maybe someone else would lactate too and they could figure out what it all meant, how to stop it etc.

"Yeah." Damon said absent-mindedly. "If they let us stay."

"They will." Nathan gave a small smile. "You just need to learn to be nice." Nathan jested and Damon chuckled.

"I don't do nice."

"Oh I know." Nathan grinned and got down on the floor onto his knees, looking at Damon's face.

_Alpha?_

Damon frowned, feeling his instincts flare a little. What was he supposed to do? What did Nathan want him to do?

_Trust your gut._

Nathan channelled and tilted his head slightly. He was showing that he wasn't challenging. Damon's face relaxed as he realised and he leaned closer to Nathan's face, remembering that he'd done this before. Nathan was asking for forgiveness for knocking him out and bundling him into his trunk. Damon paused a little from his face and wondered. His body was telling him to scent Nathan's face, to show that he was family and pack. What if he didn't?

He deliberated for a few seconds and watched as Nathan's posture changed – he slumped a little. If it was possible to tell someone's emotions just from body language, omitting the face, then this was the time. Nathan's body was practically bursting with the need to be accepted. How strange.

_Damon don't torture me._

_Why do you need me to do this? Why do you even care?_

Nathan looked up at him confused.

"You don't even like me Nathan. You just follow me like a soldier. It's Stefan's opinion you really care about." Damon said and Nathan seemed visibly grieved by that.

"You could have killed me several times and you didn't. That means something to me. You, mean something to me." Nathan was hurt.

Damon frowned and chewed his lip.

"Listen man, I know it's all about Stefan and Vida for you, but as a wolf you'll have to learn to let people in. You know that now. Adapt or…"

"Die." Damon finished for him and Nathan nodded.

"I don't like people Nathan, they bother me."

"You bother people." Nathan joked. "But wolves are pack animals. Fighting it will only tear at you."

Damon sighed and rubbed his face. Nathan rose to his feet slowly, disappointedly and moved to the door. Damon blurred to it and closed it, facing him.

_Bite Stefan again and I will kill you._

Damon commanded and channelled Stefan's memory of how the heat was triggered. Nathan swallowed and nodded. Damon sighed again and leaned in towards his face. Nathan's eyes widened in surprise and he tilted his head subtly. Damon licked his cheek and waited there for a second, listening to Nathan's heart gradually slow.

He moved back and looked at him. He could practically see the glow on him now and he shook his head.

"I'll never get this whole scenting thing." He complained.

"You will." Nathan smiled and turned to open the door again.

They both emerged to find a rather intrigued looking Stefan, staring in their direction.

_Should I be jealous about what just happened in their?_

Stefan raised an eyebrow at him and Damon chuckled.

_Weird wolf stuff._

_Getting it are you?_

_Apparently._

Damon sat next to him and Nathan grabbed his backpack and slung it on.

"Are you leaving?" Stefan asked and he nodded.

"Gotta get back to the Boarding House before the moon tomorrow."

"It's tomorrow?" Stefan tensed.

"Yeah. Don't worry, these guys are all prepped. I'm going to lock myself in your basement. Should be ok for a few days."

"Don't get stuck in there." Damon grinned and Stefan blushed. "Who knows what'll happen."

"Call me." Nathan said and they both nodded. "Nish I'm off. Have a good one!"

"Thanks Nate!" Nisha called from the kitchen.

Nathan shook Stefan's hand on the way out and kissed Vida's head, then left quietly. Vida began to nap in Stefan's arms and Damon leaned over and nuzzled his neck and shoulder.

_I'm sorry._

_It's not me you almost tore a new one._

Stefan reminded and Damon nodded but kept his nose buried in Stefan's shoulder.

_The wolves will turn tomorrow. We have to look out for Constance. She can't change when she's preggers._

Damon advised and Stefan nodded, realising that.

"What'll we do if she goes into labour?" Stefan mumbled, realising it was a real possibility.

"No frickin idea."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14 TH

Vida wailed, kicking her legs as Damon tried to dress her. He stopped and sighed as she bawled, red faced and desperate. He shook his head.

_What's so good about being butt naked, lady?_

He'd bathed her, much to her delight and amusement, they'd sang a few nursery rhymes and now it was bedtime godamn it. He wanted some grown up time with Stefan.

"Vida, stop it." He said calmly and she rolled onto her side, trying to grab hold of the mat to turn onto her stomach.

He turned her back over and she sniffled.

"What? What?" He asked and she slid her fingers in her mouth, sucking around them as she continued to kick her legs.

_Everything alright in there?_

"Yeah." He sighed.

"Daaaaa!" Vida cried and reached for his face and he huffed in surprise and lifted her.

"You calling for me angel?" He asked, studying her little face and she touched his mouth with her hands, still sniffling. "You trying to saying daddy?"

She mumbled a few more sounds and letters as she drooled and he grabbed a bib and wiped her face. She put one of her hands in her mouth as she touched his and gave a small cry again.

"Someone is miss cranky pants. It's the big old Salvatore brain of yours working away." He kissed her cheek and she put her hands around his neck, leaning her face into his chin.

He rubbed her back and cooed at her.

"Someone needs a nap I think." He said in a melodic voice and she sniffled again and gurned.

He moved her changing mat back to the chest of drawers and moved over to the bed, sitting down. She'd played all day over at Nisha's after Nathan had left and it must be why she was so grouchy now. He lay her in the crook of his elbow and she looked up at him, still shedding tears and now hiccupping on them.

He lifted the baby bottle he'd warmed, full of Stefan's blood and waved the tit at her mouth. Her eyes changed and he cooed to her to open her mouth. She kicked a little grumpily.

"Daddy's neck is for Dadda tonight angel." He whispered and she turned her face away from the bottle and gurned. "Vida." He chastised and she sniffled but opened her mouth.

He popped the tit in and tilted the bottle, rocking slightly back and forth. She sucked and closed her eyes, holding the bottle with her hands as he kissed her head and ran his nose into her hair comfortingly. Scenting his baby felt right, scenting others was still strange. He had a feeling it would always be, no matter how much wolf was in him. He had never really enjoyed people touching him, unless it was sexual of course – then he didn't mind at all. To Nathan, it seemed like a regular bonding thing to do.

Vida gurned and spat the tit out of her mouth, crying again and he sighed and frowned. Stefan got up from the lounge and entered concerned.

"She ok?"

"Hell knows. She's cranky."

Stefan reached and took her from him.

"Shame you don't have any more milk." Stefan shook his head sadly and Damon grunted.

Vida gurned and sucked on her fingers as she sniffled.

"I got it. It's ok, you just chill." Damon advised and Stefan kissed her forehead, quietening her a little and placed her back in Damon's arms. "I'll get her to finish the bottle and put her down."

"Ok."

Stefan kissed him softly and then retreated back to the lounge. Damon watched him as he went. He really wanted some alone time with him. They both needed it and not just for sex. He sighed as Vida squirmed and stuck the tit back into her mouth.

"I really need you to sleep angel." He said and she began to suck once more.

She drank peacefully for five minutes and he relaxed his body, thinking on how he was supposed to care for a pregnant lady, with keeping her alive being an issue. At least when Stefan was having Vida, it was over in a few days and Stefan couldn't die. Much easier in comparison to keeping wolf lady alive.

Vida began to gurn again and he removed the bottle as she opened her mouth to cry loudly. He froze as he gazed into her mouth and she cried.

"Stefan!" He shouted and Stefan blurred in wide-eyed.

"What's wrong?"

"She's got…" Damon stumbled, staring at her and Stefan came to his side and checked her.

"What?!"

"Teeth." Damon barely managed to croak.

"Of course she has…" Stefan began to say, thinking on her fangs, when he realised what he meant.

He gasped and opened her mouth with his fingers, trying to look. She squirmed and cried. Then he saw them, two tiny teeth on her bottom gum. When the hell had they happened? He and Damon looked at each other in shock.

"What do we do?" Damon asked, rocking her and Stefan straightened up perplexed.

"Uh…"

"When did…how did…where did they come from?" Damon shook his head.

"They grew. Must have happened while she was asleep."

"Grown from where?" Damon looked to him and Stefan opened his mouth unsure. "I always had teeth."

"Clearly you didn't." Stefan rubbed his chin as he thought. "They must be pushing through her gums."

"What?!" Damon gasped and held her to him, kissing her head.

_My god it must hurt!_

"I guess." Stefan mumbled. "That must be why she's unsettled."

"What do we do?"

Stefan shrugged.

"I don't think there's anything we can do. She's growing."

"Oh baby. It's ok." Damon kissed her face and she calmed a little. "Can't let her be in pain. Grab me some brandy."

"What?"

"Brandy, it'll soothe her gums."

"I am not giving her brandy Damon, are you nuts?!"

Damon exhaled irritated.

"What then?!"

"Painkillers?" Stefan offered.

"She can't swallow like that yet. Can you princess?" He cooed and she buried her face in his chest.

"Maybe I should go and ask Ni…"

"No, for god sake Stefan. We can deal with this on our own for once." Damon said moodily. "I'm going to compel her."

"What?!"

"Stefan she's in pain!"

"You are not compelling our baby Damon." Stefan said coldly.

"Hell right I am, unless you have another suggestion!" Damon snapped and lifted Vida onto his shoulder to rub her back.

Stefan looked around the room and tried to search his brain for another idea. What did he do when Elena had been in pain? He usually…gave her a brandy. Ok, not doing that. He gave her Tylenol or vampire blood. Why wasn't the blood taking Vida's pain away?

"Well?" Damon prompted.

"I don't know!"

"Get me the brandy, let's just try it." Damon said and Stefan frowned in disagreement, but went to retrieve it.

At least it was better than compulsion. He handed him the bottle and crossed his arms, watching. Damon opened the bottle and dipped his finger inside. Thank gods he was only going to dab at her gums and wasn't going to pour a little in her mouth.

"Don't be stupid Stefan." Damon mumbled, hearing his thoughts. "I think mammy did this for you when we were young."

"She did?" Stefan asked, intrigued.

Damon nodded and cradled Vida again, sliding his finger into her mouth and gently rubbing the alcohol on her gums. She screwed her face up at the taste but seemed to quiet down.

"It'll burn her."

"No it won't, not this little. I remember it now. I figured she put it in your mouth to get you to sleep. You never slept back then, not without mother."

Stefan sat down next to him in contemplation of that. Damon really did remember a lot more about their human lives than he did. He felt almost jealous of that. Vida looked up at him and he raised his eyebrows.

_There you go princess. Feel better?_

Damon channelled. She sucked her fingers once more but seemed a little calmer. Damon pulled her fingers out of her mouth and stuck the tit back in again for the last time. Now she'd drink and sleep, until they could figure out what the hell they were dealing with. She drank the rest of the bottle with no fuss and Stefan took her from his arms as she began to snooze. Damon took a swig from the brandy as Stefan lay her on the bed and dressed her in the clothes she had kicked at before.

Once she was dressed, he lifted her in his arms and headed towards the lounge and Damon grunted at him to stop.

_Where you going?_

_To the rocking chair, in case she wakes up._

_Leave her in her bassinet._

"Why?" Stefan frowned and Damon huffed and looked to him longingly.

"I want some Stefan time."

Stefan gave a small chuckle and scented Vida's forehead, checking she was sound and then he gave a nod and lay her carefully in her bed, covering her with a blanket and placing her pacifier next to her.

Damon stood up and moved with him into the lounge, leaving the door ajar. Stefan walked back to his chair where he had evidently been writing in his journal. Damon poured them both a bourbon and smirked at that. It was nice to see Stefan being more like himself again.

"Still writing about all my wicked ways in there?" He jested and Stefan rolled his eyes.

"Plenty of them to write about." He smiled teasingly.

"Plenty more due. You should save some chapters for how amazing I am in bed. You'd sell a million copies." Damon grinned and sat next to him, giving him his glass.

"Is that so?" Stefan raised an eyebrow.

"I guarantee it." Damon smirked and leaned in to kiss him, when Stefan turned his face away.

"I doubt it with that ego." He chuckled and Damon pouted at the rejection.

"How the hell did we get here, ay Stefan?" Damon sat back into the sofa, putting his feet up on the table and musing.

Stefan shook his head, smiling and began his writing again.

"She's got teeth now." Damon continued, more to himself than anyone else. "Soon she'll be talking and walking…"

"Mmmn." Stefan agreed.

"Then realising how fucked up everything is."

"Huh?" Stefan looked to him.

"What we are, how she got here. What she is."

"We'll deal with it when it happens. We've got years yet."

"She won't need us soon." Damon sighed.

"You're just a parcel of laughs aren't you? What's gotten into you today?"

"Nothing." Damon sighed. "Just feeling old I guess."

Stefan turned back to his writing, sipping occasionally on the bourbon.

_Stefan. What did we do before we had a kid?_

"Huh?"

"I reckon right now, I'd be at the grill with Rick getting drunk. You'd probably be off with Caroline or Elena, saving the world or planning some rescue or something."

"What's wrong?" Stefan turned towards him, abandoning his journal now and Damon shrugged and chewed his lip. "What? You're bored with our life now?"

"No." Damon snorted but shook his head in a melancholy fashion. "It's just, when I'm not with her and we're not joining…then, what am I supposed to do?"

Stefan scrutinised him for a few seconds as he thought on his words. Before they'd mated they'd hated each other. Damon always had some scheme or plot, fed on whoever he liked, caused trouble everywhere he went and then…they'd mated and been wrapped up in each other. They'd partied and shagged their way around the states, drunk on each other and this new found love they had. Then since everything had happened in Chicago and Mystic Falls afterwards, their life had been continuously full of danger or activity. Now they had Vida and although there was still plenty of activity going on, Damon couldn't be who he'd been before. So what did that leave him?

"Look at me." Stefan said and cupped Damon's jaw. "There's so much to you that you never explored before. Maybe this is the time that you're supposed to get to do that."

"Like what?"

"Well, we are wolves now too. There's so much more to learn about how that changes us."

Damon snorted.

"Clearly, you're not a builder." Stefan chuckled to lighten the tone, thinking on his attempts at their heat hut, which had only stayed in one piece because Stefan had tried to correct some of its structural faults.

"Yeah." Damon admitted.

"So find something that makes you feel, like you." Stefan encouraged.

"You make me feel like me."

Stefan leaned in and captured his mouth briefly.

_We can't be in bed all the time._

_We could, you know._

"You'll figure it out, just allow yourself to change. Old habits die hard."

Damon nodded and relaxed again as Stefan returned to his journal. The fire crackled and Stefan relaxed his body. He really wanted to write down everything that had happened with this heat, so he'd know what to do if it happened again. It felt important to write down their experiences. Maybe it would help the other mates. Damon remained silent as he wrote down every memory in his head of the last week. He flicked his eyes over to Damon occasionally to check he was ok, but Damon seemed to be hypnotised by the fire.

After about half an hour of blessed silence, Damon leaned over into him and lay his head in Stefan's lap. Stefan paused in surprise and ran his fingers through Damon's black locks.

"You ok my black haired one?" Stefan whispered soothingly and Damon simply nodded and snuggled his face into Stefan's thigh.

Stefan scratched his scalp with his fingernails and soothed him for a while until Damon closed his eyes and began to snooze. This was nice. Unexpected, but nice. It was normally Stefan who wanted to snuggle like this. Damon had been through a lot lately though and perhaps he was finally conceding to the fact that he didn't have to pretend to be ok all the time. It could be progress. They still hadn't really talked about the breastfeeding in any detail and Stefan had no doubt that they might never – until next heat if it happened again.

He returned to his writing, stopping once he felt satisfied that he'd gotten everything down and setting his book aside on the side table. He lifted his brandy and sipped, keeping his other hand massaging and running through Damon's hair. They'd checked in on Constance before they'd come home and she seemed fine – huge in the belly and looking slightly anaemic, but otherwise fine. She didn't foresee a great problem with the moon coming. She felt sure that the baby wouldn't come just yet. That made Stefan feel a little better. His birthing experience wouldn't help in this situation at all.

Damon squirmed a little on his lap and frowned. Stefan went back to petting him and cooed.

_Anxiety_

Damon channelled as he dreamt. Stefan rubbed his back.

_Baby…teeth. Danger…babies._

Stefan struggled to pick up a little more of what Damon was dreaming of. If only they could see each other's dreams. That'd be really something. Damon made a sound of anxiety and frowned again, curling up slightly, bringing his legs up to his chest as Stefan cooed and rocked him slightly.

_Love, safety my mate. Together._

Damon buried his face in Stefan's thigh and choked a little as though he was going to sob. It was time to waken him. Stefan called his name soothingly and leaned over, trying to nudge him gently awake.

"Hey, wake up." He whispered. "You're having a nightmare."

Damon jumped up, fangs extended and eyes wide as he fell off of the sofa and landed on the floor, panting and looking around.

"Hey, hey…" Stefan reached for him carefully and he looked at him still panting. "You're ok."

Damon scrutinised him for a few seconds, before he got his bearings and realised he was home. Vida began to cry in the bedroom and Stefan cupped Damon's face for a second until he was sure he was ok. He seemed a little dazed from sleep but fine and Stefan scented his cheek before standing up and moving to attend to Vida.

Damon sat on the floor, still trying to bring the beating of his heart down a little. He rubbed his face. He'd been having horrible dreams about being attacked, trying to protect Vida while being snapped at by something with huge teeth. There seemed to be chaos and screaming all around him and he'd felt fear so real, he'd been sure he was going to die.

He put his head in his hands and continued to breathe, listening to Stefan sing softly to Vida and settle her again. They were going to have to do the dreaded thing – buy some parenting books. He groaned at the thought. He didn't like the feeling that he didn't know what to do with his own baby, but she was alive and growing – fast. He couldn't believe she had teeth, real teeth. He was out of his comfort zone. Hell hadn't he been always, right from the moment she was born?

Stefan managed to settle her quickly and he returned back into the lounge. He knelt down on the floor and ran his fingers through Damon's hair and Damon looked at him.

_What was that?_

_Nothing, just a crazy dream. Think her getting teeth, knocked me off balance a little._

Stefan gave a small smile and kissed him lightly, rubbing their noses together.

_Stefan, I want you. Please._

Damon looked at him beseechingly and Stefan frowned a little concerned by his desperation and kissed him again, removing their clothing. Once Stefan's shirt was off, he lay back and Damon removed his jeans and his own, gazing down at him as though Stefan was the finest meal he'd ever seen. Stefan opened his legs to beckon him when Damon leaned his whole body down and kissed him as though he couldn't breathe if their mouths weren't connected. Stefan held him around his lower back and scratched his skin comfortingly.

_Love Damon._

_Love you Stefan. Need you so badly._

Stefan opened his legs wider in invitation when Damon sat up and shook his head.

_Please Stefan I need you inside. I feel…afraid._

Damon looked distraught and Stefan sat up and cupped his face again. Damon closed his eyes and lay down next to him, turning onto his back, urging Stefan to climb over.

_Join with me. Please._

"Ssssh. I'll take care of you." Stefan soothed, climbing in between Damon's legs.

_I'm here._

Stefan stroked Damon's hair away from his forehead, running his other hand down his chest. Damon watched him, trying to relax.

"It was just a dream." Stefan whispered.

He could see Damon was bursting to have him inside, so he reached back collecting his fluid and prepared Damon's entrance. Damon breathed a little faster but didn't speak.

"Ok?" Stefan asked gently and Damon nodded.

Stefan placed his erection at his entrance and entered him slowly. Damon's whole body surrendered to it and he flushed from his chest to his cheeks.

"Faster Stefan." He mumbled and Stefan moved in the rest of the way, making him gasp and close his eyes.

Stefan widened Damon's legs to the sides of his waist and leaned their chests together to kiss once more. Damon seemed emotional and needy, grabbing at him tightly.

_It's ok, it's ok. I'm here._

Stefan channelled worriedly.

_What's wrong Damon? Please tell me._

_Just love me Stefan._

Stefan pulled their mouths apart and scented Damon's face. Damon impatiently rocked his hips and rolled them both over so that Stefan lay beneath him. Damon sat on his pelvis, raising himself up to take Stefan's length inside again. Stefan held his hips for support and Damon began to move, as though on a mission. Stefan writhed as Damon rode him, taking him in deep and squeezing him. He closed his eyes and tilted his neck for him. Damon leaned forward, taking him at an angle and licked his chest, nibbling his nipples. Stefan mewled and held him tight. Damon slammed himself up and down, desperately and Stefan began to worry about him again. He rolled them over quickly, keeping them connected and lay Damon flat again underneath him.

"Stop Damon." He whispered. "Let me take care of you. Just relax, please. I feel like you're not with me." Stefan took one of his hands and began to kiss it.

"I'm sorry." Damon croaked.

Stefan sighed and began to thrust again, going in deep but steady. He bit into Damon's chest and began their blood wave. Damon grunted at the bite but spiralled hard into the pleasure, gasping and gyrating. Stefan drank deeply, enjoying the luxury of it and continued to move, making Damon moan in little bursts as he brushed his prostate. He was going to give him an amazing orgasm. Clearly Damon needed the endorphins.

He flexed his hips to their max, working Damon's body and drinking to keep him lost in his senses, then as Damon began to climax he locked his jaws down onto the tissue between his neck and shoulder – the mating bite area and he held on, growling as Damon exploded helpless. Damon's manhood emptied between them and Stefan held on. Holding under his bottom until Damon flopped backwards like a rag and began to snooze.

Stefan gently released his neck and kissed his cheeks and nose. He lay his face into Damon's neck for a while, fighting down his own release. After Damon had fallen into a deep sleep, he carefully slid out of him and began to scent his body. It was nice to have some time to do this. Damon had clearly wanted some alone time with him tonight and he had a feeling that he hadn't intended sex to be the centre of it. They had plenty of opportunity for sex, but actually being together, doing other things? It had been such a long time since they'd done that. He wasn't quite sure how to now. What had they done to spend time together before Vida was born? He couldn't recall anything other than dealing with whatever disaster was happening around them in Mystic Falls. Could they actually be a normal couple?

He sat up, dragging a blanket from the sofa and draping it over Damon, kissing his forehead as he did so. They needed to figure out who they were again and who they were as a couple. If they were going to have a family life, devoid of drama and supernatural disasters – they'd need that. Vida needed that.

He dressed quietly and lifted Damon's sleeping form up, placing him onto the sofa. Damon stirred as he was moved so Stefan kissed him softly and scented his face, channelling love and safety. Damon fell back asleep and Stefan checked on Vida. She was asleep with her pacifier in her mouth. He'd given her a little more brandy on her gums but didn't feel all that comfortable with it. He'd check out what people did these days. Brandy may have cut it when he was a baby, but not now.

He sat in the rocking chair, pouring himself another brandy as he relaxed. This was nice and normal – their baby sleeping soundly, his mate sleeping comfortably next to him as he gazed into the fire. No drama. His mobile beeped across the room and he blurred to it, to save waking Damon and he scrolled down, returning to his seat by the fire. It was a voicemail message. Weird. Why hadn't it wrung?

He clicked the replay button and placed it to his ear.

"Hey Stefan, listen I just wanted to let you know that…you can call me, you know? I know Damon finds it hard to accept help, but…thing is I need you guys too. Things have changed for me too and I…I guess I'm on my own."

Stefan felt his heart squeeze. Poor Nathan. His whole world had been turned upside down too and they'd just left him to it, in seek of their own discovery. He sighed and looked over at Damon's sleeping form. Damon still had anxieties that Stefan felt something for Nathan and he did. He absolutely did, but Damon was a black and white kind of guy and didn't understand that just because you have a connection with someone, doesn't mean you're fated to get together and become soul mates of the sexual variety.

"…anyway, I'm just getting my restraints and stuff down to the basement and wanted t…" a rumbling noise.

"Nathan?" Stefan spoke into the phone in query before remembering that he was listening to a recording.

He sat forward, listening intently.

"Get back!" Nathan growling and signs of him struggling.

Stefan stood up, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end in fear as he listened to what sounded like a fierce fight and Nathan growling and shouting obscenities.

"Nathan." Stefan whispered, gripping the phone.

"Ahh!" Nathan cried out as though in pain and then the message ended abruptly.

Stefan's blood ran cold and he began to tremble as he stayed frozen to the spot. Nathan was in trouble. Something had happened to him at the Boarding House. Who? Why? He swallowed. Someone had gone to the Boarding House. They probably didn't expect to see Nathan there. It was _their_ home after all. Whoever had gone there, for whatever reason, was most likely looking for them and poor Nathan had been caught in the cross fire.

He took a deep breath and looked at Damon. Damon was clearly feeling vulnerable right now, he'd been through so much with his rut. It was clear that tonight's neediness and emotion were part of him trying to adjust to what had happened. Vida was teething and grumpy. They couldn't take her with them to check this out, she was too little, but he couldn't leave her with Constance. They couldn't leave Constance alone and about to give birth at any moment with the rest of the pack in wolf form. What was he going to do?

Nathan needed help. They couldn't leave Constance alone. Vida had to be cared for. His head spun as he thought everything through, round in circles. There really wasn't much choice. Only one of them would be able to leave and investigate, the other had to stay behind and deal with everything here. He paced for a few minutes. Damon would no doubt believe that he should go and investigate – Damon demonstrated very little care in his own safety, all he cared about was that Stefan and Vida were safe and protected. It made him ruthless but also dangerous to himself. Stefan shook his head. No. He'd have to go and find out if Nathan was ok.

If Nathan had been killed…he couldn't bear to think of that. If he'd been taken somewhere…He would need help. He could call Rick, maybe, but then again it would take someone supernatural to overpower a werewolf. It couldn't have been a human who'd gotten to Nathan, unless there were a few of them to hold him down. Most likely it was someone supernatural. Rick and their human friends had done enough. They needed some normality in their lives. Who did that leave though?

Stefan chewed his lip, fiercely trying to think of anyone but Klaus. Klaus probably wouldn't give a damn about Nathan anyway. He'd just have to investigate this himself right now and make his decision on aid later. He nodded and quietly moved around, collecting some of Damon's bottles for himself. He'd check the Boarding House and get a sense of what was going on, and then he'd come back and keep Damon in the loop. With any luck, by the time they knew if they needed help, the moon would have passed and the pack would help them. After all, the pack did consider Nathan a brother in arms almost. He knew they'd help them find him.

Yeah. That was the best idea. He threw some things into his backpack and kissed Vida's forehead, stroking her hair gently.

"Daddy will look after you angel." He said and she gurned a little.

He popped her pacifier in her mouth and she sucked and sighed. He moved through to the lounge and knelt down beside Damon's face. What was he going to tell him? If he told him what he was doing, he would argue and try and stop him from leaving. He had to tell him something though. If he just left, or left a note, that wouldn't be fair and they were a family now. He sighed and nuzzled Damon awake, with his nose.

Damon opened his eyes blearily and looked at him.

_Love._

_Love, my black haired one._

_What time is it?_

_Time to sleep._

"Hmmmn." Damon hummed and tried to slide his arm around Stefan's back, to pull him on top of him.

"I'm going to go and see what Vida needs for her gums." He said, chuckling and kissing Damon's shoulder as he detached his arm from around his body.

"The brandy works fine." Damon said tiredly, closing his eyes again.

"Maybe in our time, but she shouldn't have alcohol in her Damon. She's too little. I'm going to go to the seven eleven."

"There isn't one for miles. We'll do it tomorrow." Damon grunted.

"It's ok. I feel like a drive anyway. Sleep. I think she'll be fine for the night." Stefan stroked the side of his face, watching with relief as Damon began to drift to sleep again.

"Hmmn."

_I'll be back soon._

Damon's face relaxed and Stefan placed a gentle kiss on his lips before standing up. He grabbed another blanket from their bed and draped it around Damon, tucking him in effectively. Damon would be angry later, but what choice did he have?

He surveyed the lounge for another few minutes, making sure he was making the right decision. He checked his phone log. Nathan had made the call only an hour ago. It would take at least three hours to reach Mystic Falls. He must have literally called as soon as he'd returned from being here with them. Time was wasting.

He locked the door behind him and took a deep breath. Nathan needed him. He jumped into Damon's Camaro and started the engine as quietly as he could, prayed that Damon would sleep through it. The car started and he pulled away from the camp, heading towards the highway. His stomach clenched in discomfort at his dishonesty. He hated lying to anyone, especially Damon. As soon as Damon woke up, he'd try to channel to him and would realise that Stefan wasn't near him. They'd never been able to channel very far in distance. Then, he'd know something was really wrong. Stefan just had to get to Mystic Falls, figure out what he was dealing with and then call him as soon as possible.

Damon was going to be livid, but Nathan…Nathan.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15 TH

Stefan's guilt was crippling. The further he drove, the more his stomach tightened. Damon would be so hurt and angry. He would probably go on about how their days of deceiving each other should be over by now and it was true. He sighed, pulling over onto the hard shoulder as he tried to rein in his emotion.

He sat his head against the steering wheel. He hated lying.

_Damon I'm sorry. I just don't want you to get hurt._

He pulled his cell from his pocket and stared at the speed dial. He could just call him, tell him what was happening so he wouldn't wake up and wonder what was taking so long. He sat back and sighed heavily. He was almost in Mystic Falls. If he did call him, Damon had no way of getting here anyway. They'd only taken the Camaro when they'd left to join the wolves.

It'd just make Damon all the more riled. He punched in Nathan's number again, for the tenth time, hoping that at any minute Nathan would answer and everything would just be a big misunderstanding. Nathan's cell rang out as usual and he threw his phone across the dashboard in a moment of complete vexation. The battery fell out and tumbled to the floor loudly. He gripped the steering wheel and took a deep breath.

He turned the ignition on again and headed back onto the road. He'd call Damon as soon as he knew what was happening. He drove like a mad man, the road spitting up dust as he did and managed to make it there only 20 minutes later. He parked at an angle across the driveway and jumped out, running towards the front door. There were no signs of any battle or problems as he threw the front door open and called for Nathan loudly. No reply came.

He sniffed deeply, tuning his wolf sense in and heard harsh breathing coming from down the basement stairs. He blurred down them and ran to the cellar door, stopping to look in as he realised the door was open.

_Nathan?_

He channelled and stepped aside to look in the room. The smell of blood hit his nose immediately and his breath caught in his throat. He crept inside, looking around and found a tangled mass of fur and limbs, trembling and bleeding, but secured to the wall.

"Nathan." He whispered and took a few careful steps forward.

Of course. The moon was out, so Nathan would have turned. Could that be what had caused all of the noise? No. Nathan had said "Get out!" – hadn't he? He'd been talking to someone else. He must have been attacked.

"Nathan. It's ok." He said in a soft voice and a pair of yellow/gold eyes looked at him.

It was so strange to think that this animal was Nathan. The whole werewolf transformation was so…unbelievable.

"Can you understand me?" He stepped closer. "Can you channel?"

The last time Nathan had been a wolf had been during the big battle with the hybrids and Stefan hadn't seen him the entire time. He knew that he'd turned with the other wolves and fought, but he hadn't actually seen him like this before. Was it him? Did he understand anything?

The wolf made a small whining sound and licked one if it's paws. His coat was silver grey and matted with blood. Where was the blood from? Stefan knelt down closer and reached out his hand slowly. The wolf lunged for him, snapping its jaws, clearly feeling afraid and Stefan moved backwards and watched him cautiously.

"It's me." He cooed and the wolf trembled and licked its limbs again at the effort of having protected itself.

Stefan studied how it was sitting. Clearly the throat wasn't torn or he wouldn't be conscious or able to move his head like that. Where were the injuries then? He stood up and the wolf growled, baring its teeth but didn't lunge again.

_Family. Pack._

Stefan channelled and the wolf watched him as he moved around slowly, trying not to make direct eye contact. As he rounded him, he realised what the wounds were. All of its legs/arms/whatever had been broken. It couldn't get up or stand. His heart squeezed. Who had done this? He shook his head as he realised what pain Nathan must be feeling. The transformation was painful enough already and then to have this done to him. His eyes filled with tears. He had to give him vampire blood and heal him, but to do that, he had to subdue him and to do that, he had to get a lot closer.

He got down onto his hands and knees so they were the same height and tilted his head slightly to avoid direct eye contact. He'd seen Nathan do this to Damon to show that he wasn't challenging him. The wolf appeared to relax slightly. Stefan closed his eyes and tried to think. Smell normally told of their pack connection. If Nathan could just smell him, he'd know they were family and that might help too. How to get near enough though. How did he show complete submission?

He stepped nearer and the wolf bristled again. He held his breath and looked down at the ground, crawling forward. His heart pounded with every growl of warning, until he stopped at a snap of jaws again. Instead of retreating he stayed completely still and breathed. Nathan's wolf brain took a few minutes to decide to relax slightly and then Stefan moved as slowly as was humanly possible, to lie on his back, exposing his stomach – that's what Nathan had done during the spell to show Damon he was alpha.

The wolf stopped growling and sniffed, studying him and Stefan waited. The wolf couldn't move to inspect him. After a few tense moments of silence, the wolf finally gave out a small whine and he looked at him. Pain was stretched across his features and Stefan got onto his hands and knees again slowly and moved to him. He stopped just before him, head tilted and reached his hand out along the ground. The wolf sniffed it and then, much to Stefan's relief, licked it in welcoming. Stefan let out a breath and reached up to stroke the fur on its head.

"Pack." He said softly and the wolf whined and licked his cheek.

He carefully checked over him as the wolf continued to scent him and discovered he was right about the broken bones. He didn't know how to set animal bones. If he tried, he might hurt him further. He chewed his lip as he realised he would have to wait until morning when Nathan was human, to set them.

"I'm so sorry Nathan. I'll fix this." He said and rubbed his back like he would have a friendly dog.

Normally during a wolf moon, were's were much more vicious and excitable, but clearly the pain was reducing those instincts to hunt and he was effectively like a dog.

"Nathan, I have to put you to sleep for a little while, ok?" He whispered, hoping he could do this quickly somehow.

He moved to take a hold of its neck when he stopped himself. What was he doing?! Nathan wasn't immortal like them, if he broke his neck, he'd simply die. He pulled back sharply at his own stupidity. It was sometimes so easy to forget that although Nathan was family, he was actually alive. What the hell was he going to do then? He'd need some kind of tranquiliser.

He patted Nathan's head once more and Nathan lay down, resting his head on his paws to lick them as he whined with the pain. They didn't have anything that would work here. Not anymore. He could call a vet…but it was 1am. He sighed in torment. Nathan was going to have to bear this until the sun rose. There was no other way that would hurt him less.

"I'm sorry." Stefan croaked and ran his fingers through his fur comfortingly. "I swear whoever did this will pay Nathan."

Stefan sat comforting him for a while until the wolf seemed to drift into semi-consciousness. Stefan removed himself from his body carefully to avoid rousing him and looked around the room. How had someone gotten down here and surprised a werewolf? Nathan knew the house, the normal smells and sounds – how had he been surprised? He went to check on all of the locks and other passages, but found no evidence of tampering. There were no discarded weapons, no blood other than Nathan's, so what the hell had happened? Nathan was strong and if he was mid-turn, then he would have had his teeth and reflexes to fight with. Stefan found it very hard to believe that anyone could have hurt Nathan that bad and not at least gotten bitten a little.

He walked up to check the other rooms, checking to see if he could find an intruder. After all, what was the point of attacking and incapacitating a wolf, only to leave and neither kill him or steal anything? What was the reason for this?

He found nothing out of place and he rubbed his face tiredly. It had been a long day. He still hadn't called Damon. He moved down to the car again and fumbled around, looking for his cell battery. It took him a while but he managed to find it wedged between the gear shaft and the seat undercarriage. He pieced the phone back together and turned it on, waiting impatiently. He checked the time – 2.30am. Damon would be in deep sleep and hopefully so would Vida. He paced outside of the car nervously as he waited for the phone to start up properly. If Damon had awoken and realised he was gone, he would have called to find out where he was. His stomach clenched uncomfortably. Finally the apps all began and he let out a breath of relief to see there were no texts or missed calls coming through. Damon was asleep.

He typed out a text to him.

" _Don't be mad. Nathan's been attacked at home. I didn't want to worry you, so I took the car to find him. Call me when you wake up. I love "_

He sent off the text, remembering that Damon's cell was in the bedroom and not with him so it wouldn't waken him. He'd have to deal with the repercussions of this tomorrow but right now he couldn't focus on this. If he'd told Damon what was going on, Damon would have driven out here himself. Stefan leaned against the car as he considered how things might have gone down differently. Damon wasn't submissive. He was considered to be the alpha to Nathan and so perhaps if Damon shown up here, they may have fought. Instead Stefan didn't mind being considered submissive to Nathan. He most certainly wasn't, but his ego could deal with that as long as it allowed him to care for the wolf. Damon would have been frustrated and probably just tried to set his limbs anyway, getting bitten and mauled at the same time. Damon didn't fear pain or being injured and that was what made him a little less careful in these situations. As long as the people he cared about were ok, his injuries weren't important.

Stefan nodded to himself. Tomorrow, he'd set Nathan's limbs, give him some blood to heal and then take him back to Damon to figure out what was going on. Damon would see what had happened to Nathan and he'd understand.

He went back inside and grabbed a blanket. He'd stay with Nathan in the basement until he was in human form, so he could act straight away and get them away. The urge to lift him and just place him in the car was immense, but by the look of how badly he had been crippled, it could cause a lot more damage to move him.

He went into the cellar and moved to him, placing a blanket around the shivering wolf. The bleeding had stopped, but was still coating him. He cooed gently and stroked the wolf's ears as it whimpered.

"A few more hours and then I'll take the pain away."

He lay beside him, stroking his fur and the wolf lay its head against his chest.

"You're going to be ok."

They lay together, Stefan stroking his fur until he fell asleep through exhaustion. What seemed like only seconds later, but must have been hours, Nathan's body stirred against him, moving and he opened his eyes. The wolf was twisting slightly and the fur was retracting back into the skin. Stefan dared not to move and watched with his mouth hanging open in awe as Nathan turned slowly back into his human form.

No sooner had his legs returned to human than he awoke and howled in pain. The bones cracking even more due to the nature of the change. Nathan began to scream in agony and bleed again and Stefan sat up, unsure how to help.

"I got you. I got you." Stefan said and Nathan squinted at him in disbelief at his presence but couldn't utter anything other than cries of pain.

Stefan watched, bile rising in his throat as he saw that indeed Nathan's hands and wrists were also broken and almost contorting in the change. God the pain must be terrible. Nathan blacked out as the last changes happened and left him completely human again. Stefan whispered to him and touched his face. He was unconscious from the pain no doubt. That'd make this easier anyway. He set to it, tackling the hands first and trying to be as careful as possible. If he accidently broke something off, there was only so much vampire blood could do. He cringed, almost sobbing as Nathan's body jerked at the pain. His hands were covered in blood by the time he finished but he'd managed to re-set all of the bones in his limbs without severing them. He sat back panting and bit into his wrist, draping it over Nathan's mouth. Nathan opened his eyes and growled, biting into Stefan's wrist with his human teeth and drinking loudly. Stefan grimaced but allowed it.

He drank for a minute and then Stefan pulled his arm away and squeezed it in discomfort. Human teeth were so blunt, they really hurt. Nathan's teeth had actually pierced the skin and Stefan frowned horrified as he watched the semi-circular teeth marks swell with his blood. They closed up and vanished and he looked to Nathan who was breathing harshly. There would still be some pain but it would diminish soon enough. He dragged the blanket back over Nathan's nude form and Nathan looked to him groggily.

"Stefan?"

"I'm here." Stefan said and Nathan's eyes filled with tears.

"You shouldn't be here!"

"What are you talking about? Who did this to you?" Stefan cupped his face and leaned over him protectively.

"There was something here. It felt like…"

"Like what?" Stefan urged and Nathan bit his lip and shed a tear.

"Like grandma wolf." Nathan croaked and Stefan immediately stood up, every hair on his body standing on end as though he had been charged with an electrical pulse.

He let out an involuntary growl and looked around, watching for the familiar shadow. Nathan grunted as he tried to move but couldn't just yet. Stefan sniffed and tried to relax when he saw nothing out of the ordinary. The whole house seemed normal and he'd checked everywhere. Besides, grandma wolf was dead, spirit and Bonnie had ensured that she couldn't use their bodies to passage back through here. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself and knelt back down to attend to Nathan again. Nathan was sobbing.

"The pain will ease in a minute, just try and relax." Stefan stroked through his hair and cupped his cheek in consolation.

"No. Stefan you have to leave. She wants you." Nathan grabbed his hand tight, imploringly.

"What?"

"She was here. I swear, except she wasn't the shadow. She was like…a ghost. I could see her clearly though. She, she could touch me."

"How is that possible? Bonnie stopped her from being able to come through."

"I don't know, but she got me good Stefan. She had me broken before I could even do anything."

Stefan tried to help him to breathe and stroked his hair softly.

"What did you mean she wants me?" He asked after Nathan had relaxed a little and sat up slowly, clenching and unclenching his fists and trying to move them again.

"I don't know, but I felt it. She didn't really speak but I could feel some of her thoughts."

"Like channelling?"

"Not exactly, but I knew she wanted you." Nathan shook his head. "Why did you come here?"

"You called me when she attacked you. I heard it. I came straight away."

Nathan stared at him hard and unblinking and Stefan felt the hairs on his body stand again.

"What?" Stefan urged and Nathan took a shaky breath.

"I never called you."

Nathan paled and Stefan gave a small smile.

"It was just as it happened. You were telling me to call if I needed anything. That you needed us too because you felt alone here. Remember? It must have been when you found her in here, because then you fought and the phone went dead." Stefan reminded him, rubbing his back and Nathan stared at him, still unblinking.

"Stefan. I didn't call you."

"Nathan…"

"No, Stefan. I left my cell in my car. When I got back here, she ambushed me in the lounge, not here."

Stefan's stomach began to churn.

"But I found you in here, as a wolf." He croaked.

"She used me." Nathan stood up shakily. "She knew _you'd_ come back for me, not Damon."

"How could she have known that? What for?" Stefan began to look around to catch the shadow again.

"She knew how much I…" he stumbled and avoided Stefan's eyes as he pulled the blanket around his waist. "She knew only you would drop everything to come back for me. Damon would have waited until tomorrow."

"Today." Stefan corrected. "And no he wouldn't have. He'd have dropped everything too."

"Stefan." Nathan gave a small sigh. "I'm just his beta."

"You're family." Stefan defended, but he knew it was true.

Damon felt a strange kinship and he didn't dislike Nathan, but he probably would have waited until the morning before setting out to come here. He'd have planned but not dropped everything and ran straight to Mystic Falls.

"Even if what you're remembering is true, she's not here now is she?" Stefan asked and Nathan sniffed and scanned the area as they moved up to the lounge.

"No."

"And I'm right here and I'm fine. She can't touch me. This time I don't have an innocent soul growing inside of me for her to drain." Stefan almost spat in revulsion. "She can't get me."

Nathan looked at him and held up his wrists to remind him of the very real reality of pain that she could inflict and Stefan swallowed bile and dragged him towards the door.

"Come on. Let's get out of here."

Nathan didn't argue or even consider stopping to pick up his clothes or belongings, he simply followed Stefan out to the Camaro and climbed in with the blanket still wrapped around him. Stefan closed his door and jumped in the driver's seat, anxiously eyeing the house and the grounds for any traces of supernatural mojo afoot. Everything seemed normal. Birds were out picking at the ground, the smell of morning dew filled his nostrils and the sun warmed them. Everything felt serene and peaceful.

He turned the ignition on and sped away down the drive. Nathan didn't speak a word, still pale from his trauma and Stefan kept his eyes on the road, checking the mirrors every few seconds for any sign they were being followed. Nothing. They sped past the Mystic Falls sign and his cell wrang. Typical timing. He fumbled with it, sliding it to his ear and answering.

"Stefan where the fuck are you?" Damon was mad.

"I'm bringing Nathan back with me. He's been hurt. We've just left Mystic Falls." Stefan tried to keep his cool head on, although he could vomit in anxiety.

"What the hell is going on?"

"I can't explain right now, but I'm ok. We're both ok." Stefan stumbled and Nathan frowned at how tense he seemed.

"Hey, I…" Stefan sighed and Nathan averted his eyes as Stefan blushed in embarrassment. "I need you to do something for me."

"What?" Damon huffed.

"Call Bonnie. Nathan thinks that grandma wolf is back."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Damon fretted, pulling at his hair as Bonnie looked through her grimoire and went over possibilities.

"Well, is there anything in that book or what?" He huffed, rocking Vida's bouncy chair with his foot as she chewed on one of her toys and drooled.

"I'm not an oracle Damon!" Bonnie snapped and then sighed. "When they get back, get them to call me. I'll go over to the Boarding House and have a look."

"Do some witchy woo supernatural sweep."

"I'll call you if I find anything." She advised and hung up.

Damon sat down in the rocking chair and closed his eyes. He'd been so mad when he'd woken up to find the place deserted. Vida had awoken in the mid morning and had begun to ball because of her gums. He'd stumbled through to find their bed empty and Stefan's text on his phone. It had taken a few brandies for him and a few gum sweeps for Vida, before both of them had calmed down.

He looked at his watch. Stefan and Nathan should be here any minute now. He didn't even want to think about what had happened to Nathan and how Stefan would probably have run to him and nursed his wounds. He scowled and Vida dropped her toy from her mouth and gave a small shout, pointing to him. He exhaled and looked down at her.

"Da!"

"That's me princess." He gave a small, awkward smile and she gazed at him.

She channelled an image of Stefan and he exhaled again. The wolf in him wanted to bite Stefan's scruff when he got back and drag him somewhere private so they could have out the fact that Stefan had done a midnight escape and left him lying, tucked in like a hopeless infant. Was he really so unreliable that Stefan couldn't trust him to go get Nathan? He shook his head and Vida gave a squeal and reached for her dropped pacifier at the foot of her chair. She stretched but couldn't quite reach it. Damon watched her, too tired to play this game right now. She'd been doing this all morning – screaming for her pacifier and then throwing it at him or on the floor, then crying for it again.

"Sorry angel, but you've cried wolf enough. No cigar." He said firmly and she looked at him and scowled, kicking her legs so that she bounced in her chair. "You can scream and kick all you want, coz dadda is taking over."

She began to cry and kick unhappily and he stood up and poured himself a brandy, shaking his head when she looked to him. She screamed louder and he rubbed his eyes. He turned his back for a second to sit his glass down, deliberating whether to give her the damn pacifier anyway, when he heard a ripping sound. He turned around in surprise and watched as she kicked and ripped the harness at her groin off as she moved. He open his mouth in amazement when she tried to sit forward and grab the pacifier again, rocking the chair to its maximum angle. He blurred to her and grabbed the chair as it fell forward from her attempts and sat it back down properly. She balled her eyes out in fear and he unclipped the remaining, un-torn parts of the harness and lifted her, cooing at her and looking down at the ripped fabric. These chairs were hardcore. The fabric so strong and resistant to tearing, you practically had to cut through them with a knife to get them to sever like that, but the strength in her body and legs had kicked it right off from where it attached.

He patted her back and bounced her lightly, kissing her head and grabbing the spare pacifier from his pocket.

"Here, look. See?" He whispered, kissing her little tear-stained cheek and she reached for it and took it from him, sticking it into her mouth and sucking.

She looked up at him and he wiped the tears from her cheeks, struggling to keep an expression of worry from her.

"You just need to learn to not…" he began to say when he paused.

What? What was he supposed to say? Don't be so strong? Stop almost injuring yourself by using vamp speed and strength? She had no concept of what he was talking about. Her body was faster and stronger than a normal baby. Everything about her was growing and adapting constantly. It terrified him. She had another tooth this morning and he'd blanched when he'd seen it. After speaking to Stefan, he'd spent ages googling about teething in infants and he knew that she was teething way too quickly.

She reached up and touched his mouth, sticking her fingers inside and he kissed them playfully.

"Slow down angel." He whispered, fearfully. "Stay with daddy a little longer ok?"

She sighed and leaned her head forward, resting against his collarbone and he rubbed her back and sat down in the rocking chair. If she grew much faster, she'd be an adult in a few years and then she'd leave them. Now that he loved her so much, he couldn't bare that. He never thought he could love anyone as much as he loved Stefan, but she was part of him. When she grew up and left them, they'd feel so empty.

He shook his head sadly, trying to shake off his grief and Vida began to doze, curling her fingers into his shirt. He heard the Camaro drive into the camp and he sat and waited. He wasn't going to run out there. Stefan could damn well come in and explain himself.

He scented Vida's head softly and waited as he heard their footsteps come up to the lodge. Stefan opened the front door and looked to him, blushing, before helping Nathan in. Damon stifled a growl when he saw Nathan's state of undress. Stefan closed the door and rubbed Nathan's back and Damon felt his fangs fill his mouth in jealously until he looked at Nathan's face. Nathan looked…haunted.

_Alpha._

Nathan channelled and stumbled a little. Damon instinctively stood up, but Stefan helped him onto the couch to lie down.

"What happened?" Damon asked, studying Nathan's body for wounds.

Stefan pulled another blanket over Nathan and looked to him guiltily when he saw that Vida was asleep but red faced. He sniffed deeply and detected the trace smell of brandy from her and he exhaled annoyed. He didn't want alcohol in her. Damon snapped him back to attention by moving towards Nathan and sniffing.

_Grandma wolf, pain, blood._

Nathan channelled to Damon as he closed his eyes tiredly. Damon's eyes widened and Nathan channelled him the memory. Stefan reached for Vida, but Damon broke off the channelling and looked at him suspiciously for a second, holding her tighter.

_I brought something for her gums from the seven eleven._

"The one in _liar_ ville?"Damon grunted at him.

"We don't have time for this right now ok?" Stefan snapped at him and reached for Vida again.

Damon handed her over carefully and she gurned, wriggling. Stefan scented her face and cradled her to him, rocking gently. She turned her face into his chest and sighed, smelling his scent and settling.

Damon touched Nathan's face and began to sniff him. Nathan allowed it and continued to channel to him as Stefan watched oblivious. To his amazement, Damon got down onto his knees and scented Nathan's cheek in one long stroke of his tongue and Nathan's colour began to return. Nathan turned onto his side and they looked at each other, sharing some silent communication that Stefan wasn't included in.

Damon tensed and stared at Nathan and Stefan tapped his foot impatiently.

"Well? What are you talking about?" He asked and Nathan looked to him.

"Constance." Nathan said and Stefan raised an eyebrow. "Her babies are due?"

"No. She said she doesn't think so." Stefan shook his head.

"Hell of a coincidence." Damon spoke.

"What?" Stefan frowned.

"Grandma wolf makes a play for us again, just at a time where more babies are being born." Damon pointed out.

Stefan cradled Vida protectively and swallowed.

"These babies are wolf though. Not our bloodline of wolf." Stefan said and Nathan nodded slowly, thinking on that.

"Did you know the father?" Damon asked and Nathan shook his head.

"He was already dead by the time they made it to Mystic Falls. I didn't know any of that pack before." Nathan said.

"How do we know that he wasn't one of our bloodline then?" Damon mumbled to himself.

"He'd have been drawn to us, like Mike and Michelle." Stefan said.

"Maybe he was. Maybe that's why the hybrids got near him, because they were in on the spell and knew where potential mates would be going. We know nothing about how the guy died." Damon stood up and Nathan sat up a little more alert.

Stefan exhaled in anxiety and Vida gurned and flickered her eyes open.

"If these babies are special, then she could be trying to get to them to do the spell again." Nathan said.

"They're about to be born, it's not like she can drain them now. Surely they're too developed for that." Stefan argued, unwilling to consider the possibility as fear crawled up his spine.

If the babies were born and could be used by grandma wolf, then could Vida?

Damon looked over at him, sensing his pain and fear and he moved to him and nuzzled his neck. Stefan closed his eyes and rubbed his nose against Damon's cheek. Vida's eyes sprang open and she gave a small cough, spitting her pacifier out and Damon cooed at her.

"She's a little fighter. I think she's safe. She's strong." Nathan said, picking up on Stefan's fears and Damon nodded and huffed in near amusement.

"Stronger than grandma bitch could ever be." He said and pointed towards the ruined bouncy chair.

Both Stefan and Nathan looked to it and then back to Vida in awe.

"Legs of steel." Damon nodded confidently. "No spirit is messing with my girl."

Stefan gave a small smile and stroked Vida's hair. She looked up at him, veins tingling and gurned.

"Daaaaaaadaaaaaaa…da. Da!" She sounded and he chuckled.

"Wow! She's talking?" Nathan smiled and Stefan shook his head.

"Not quite. 'Da' is just the easiest sound I reckon."

"Hold on there Dr Freud. She knows the difference. Don't you angel?" Damon cooed at her and she reached for his mouth.

"I'm daaa and this is daaaaada. Right angel?" He smiled and kissed her fingers.

She smiled and gave out a giggle and Stefan felt his heart swell.

"Dadda." Stefan said and she looked to him. "You want some of dadda's blood?"

She made a sound of want and returned her attention to him fully again.

"That's a yes." Damon smirked and Stefan beamed at him, before turning and moving away into the bedroom to feed her.

Damon waited until the door was closed before he turned to Nathan again.

"Why did she want Stefan at the Boarding House?"

"I don't know. All I could tell was that she wanted him there."

Damon sat across from him and clasped his hands thinking.

"Maybe she thought she could get to the babies through him somehow?" Nathan offered.

"How?"

"She broke me like a twig Damon. I didn't even have time to react. She could have hurt him too. If she could, she could use that to make us do anything to get her to stop hurting him."

Damon paled. That made sense. Everyone knew that Damon would do anything to protect his mate, even handing over new born cubs. Nathan's feelings for Stefan were also known to most. The timing seemed too suspicious for it to be anything other than the imminent birth of these cubs that was the reason for grandma's move.

"She didn't get him though. She didn't even make a move. You got away today." Damon sighed perplexed.

Nathan nodded and sat forward, mirroring Damon's posture now.

"Why let you go?" Damon mumbled.

Nathan gasped and looked to him in fear.

"What?" Damon asked nervously.

"So she could follow us back here."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16 TH

Vida seemed to prefer taking a bottle now and that was ok. Weird, but ok. She held the bottle herself as Stefan tipped the bottom upwards with his thumb. She drank hungrily and he smiled and kissed her forehead. No one was getting his girl. Their girl. She was strong and clearly had Damon's temper. She'd be fine.

"Salvatore fire." He chuckled to himself and she looked up at him as he spoke. "That's right. You've got it lady. You know, I don't remember grandma, but Aunt Millie – she had some fire."

Vida's eyes widened as she listened to him.

"She ruled the house. I'd never met a woman so…ahead of her time. Of course all the men thought she was a demon, but she was just headstrong."

Vida's eyes began to droop and he chuckled.

"I see a little of her in you. She was a woman to be reckoned with." He smiled and tilted the bottle a little more, waking her enough for her to start sucking again. "She was a real woman. She never had any kids of her own, but she was always there for me and daddy. When she knew how her brother treated daddy…" he paused, thinking on the beatings their father had inflicted on Damon when they were young.

He shuddered and looked down at her innocent face again.

"Well, that was a long time ago." He cooed and she began to sleep, half sucking.

He took the bottle from her, happy to see it was almost empty and sat it on the side table. She fell back, resting in his arms peacefully and he stroked her hair for a few minutes, just gazing down at her. Constance would have this chance soon and he would make sure that nothing prevented that. If Grandma wolf was going to try and get back through the other babies, he'd find a way to stop it. Grandma wolf might try and talk mean through people's dreams and by hurting mortals, but clearly her bark was bigger than her bite. No way had she been able to attack Nathan like that without exhausting any power she had over this world. It must have taken a lot to render Nathan to his broken state and she had clearly not expected to be unable to catch Stefan in the same way too.

Nathan was strong. Stronger than she must have realised and she'd wiped herself out. He smiled to himself at that thought. Nathan was strong. He'd fought and stopped the witch from being able to hurt Stefan.

He exhaled and stood up, feeling loved by that. It felt so good to have a family again. He lay Vida in her bassinet and frowned when he struggled to fit her legs in. He pulled her back out as she pouted and held her, rocking her softly. The bassinet was too small. How had that happened in one day? He looked down at her. She needed a cot now and they didn't have one. They'd had it sent to New York already, where Anne and Michael were looking after their new home.

He bit his lip and looked to their bed. She'd have to sleep with them for a while. He grabbed some pillows and cushions and lay her in the middle, building them up around her so she wouldn't roll off of the bed. It'd have to do for now. He stepped back smiling as she sighed and turned onto her side. He'd never made a connection with his human relatives through her before, but he could see them in her now. Truth be told, he hadn't thought about his human family in a long time. They were a distant memory. With Vida being here, growing and becoming a little person, he felt as though he could see some of them in her. It was important for her to know where she'd come from and he had to make sure that he told her all about them when she was older. Explaining to her that her daddies were brothers was going to be difficult though. How do you do that? Sure, it was different for them because 145 years of being somewhat estranged vampires had cultivated the ability for them to detach from their familial ties somewhat, but truth was that despite the vampire element, they came from the same two people and had grown up as siblings. He just hoped she'd be able to understand that they were different from other siblings.

He sighed and drew their blanket up over her body. They'd figure it all out later. He smiled and stroked her cheek. He stood up to move away when he felt a sudden pain in his stomach. He grunted and doubled over in shock. What the hell was that?! He straightened up again, rubbing his abdomen and took a deep breath. He moved towards the living room again and felt another, much more painful jolt through him this time and he fell into the changing table as he gasped and held himself. He panted, reeling from the pain of it and in a flash both Damon and Nathan had thrown the door to the bedroom open and dashed to him, calling his name.

He squinted at them as his vision clouded. What were they saying? It sounded like they were both underwater, in slow motion and garbled. He opened his mouth to speak when Damon cupped his face worriedly.

_Pain_

He channelled before falling forward into Damon's arms. He closed his eyes tiredly, hearing growling noises and rustling.

_Damon?_

He channelled, trying not to fall unconscious and shuddered as he felt the sensation of being pulled at by lots of pairs of hands. He grunted, fighting off the urge to sleep.

_Get off me…_

What were they doing? Why were they both pulling at him like that, they were going to tear his arms and legs off if they kept it up. He groaned frustrated and tried to pull away from the groping. Hands were pulling at his clothes now, touching him in his groin and his sex. He didn't like this. Enough fooling around guys! He tossed and turned his body, feeling violated and took a deep breath. He lashed out with his arms with all the energy he had and heard a huge crash.

The hands stopped probing and he opened his eyes. He panted, realising he was lying on the bedroom floor. He could here Nathan speaking. He raised himself up.

"I got you brother, just stay still." Nathan was cooing.

Stefan blinked hard and opened his eyes again. What was going on? Nathan moved to the side, no longer obscuring his vision and Stefan cried out when he saw Damon. Damon had been impaled by the door handle to their bedroom and he was coughing blood as Nathan tried to break the handle off.

"Damon?" He croaked, trying to sit up to help when Nathan hissed at him to stay down.

He watched confused and distressed as Nathan got the handle off and pulled it out of Damon's back. Damon groaned and sat down on the floor, holding his back and panting. Nathan threw the handle down on the floor and ran to fetch Damon some blood.

"What happened?"

_Love, mate…did they get you too?_

Damon looked at him as he recovered himself and frowned.

_What?_

_They were grabbing at me too. What were they?_

Damon stared at him unblinking for a second before licking his lips and grimacing as he drew his hand back to lick his own blood from it. Nathan came back in and knelt next to him, handing him a bottle of Stefan's blood and scenting his cheek for a second before returning his attention to Stefan again. Stefan watched him numbly and Nathan moved over to him almost cautious.

"Are you ok?" Nathan asked and Stefan shook his head. "What happened to you?"

"Where did they go?" Stefan asked, watching as Damon drank the bottle hungrily.

"Who?"

"The people grabbing at me." Stefan said, a little shaken.

"There was no one here Stefan, just you. You went nuts and attacked Damon." Nathan said and Stefan shook his head in fear.

"No! There were people here, trying to pull at me. I had to get them off!" Stefan sat up straighter and Damon finished the bottle with a sigh and wiped his forehead.

Nathan regarded him for a minute, realising that he was being serious.

"What did you feel?"

Stefan moved to Damon and cupped his face worriedly and Damon gave a nod to let him know he was alright. Stefan rubbed their noses together.

"Stefan. What did you feel?" Nathan pushed and Stefan turned to look at him, channelling the memory.

Nathan exhaled immediately and looked to Damon, sending him the memory too and Damon tightened.

"What the fuck?" Damon mumbled and Nathan shrugged and observed Stefan closely again.

"The baby!" Stefan jumped up and towards the bed to see Vida sound asleep.

He exhaled in relief and Nathan helped Damon to his feet again.

"Magic?" Nathan asked Damon and Damon hummed.

"Coincidence?" Nathan pondered and Stefan turned to look at them both.

Had he not just been violated by a bunch of invisible people, he could laugh at how they were both standing mirroring each other's body language and expressions. He raised an eyebrow and Damon folded his arms.

"Did it feel like grandma wolf?" He asked and Stefan thought for a second before shaking his head.

"There were hands touching you. To do what?" Nathan asked him.

"I don't know, but it felt like…" Stefan struggled, "A violation."

Damon tightened angrily.

A knock sounded at the front door and they all moved out of the bedroom into the lounge, closing the bedroom door a little. Stefan sat down and Damon poured him a bourbon to calm his nerves. Nathan answered the door to Nisha and let her in. She looked a little worse for wear.

"Hey, when did you get back?" She asked him.

"This morning. Something attacked me as I was changing."

Her eyes widened and he gave her a nod.

"Another wolf?" She asked and he shook his head.

"We don't know yet." Damon said and channelled to Nathan not to mention grandma wolf yet.

This pack had been involved with the hybrid element of the spell but they didn't know everything. Damon wanted to keep it that way for now until they knew what they were dealing with. Nathan tensed a little but obeyed.

"You should stay with us, with the pack until the moon leaves. Safety in numbers." She said and he nodded gratefully. "Stefan you ok?"

Stefan gave her as normal a smile as he could and she smiled back.

"How was the wolfie time of the month?" Damon tried to lighten the mood and she snorted.

"Unwelcome. I should be here for Constance." She sighed regretfully.

"Don't worry, we're here to keep an eye on her." Stefan soothed and she nodded and took a seat.

"I think she's a few weeks off, I'm just nervous. I hate having no control when the moon comes." She looked to them enviously.

"Yeah." Nathan mumbled in agreement.

"So, no problems last night with her?" She gave herself a shake.

"No, she was fine." Stefan said, looking to Damon for confirmation of that, considering he hadn't been here at all.

"Good." Nisha relaxed.

"You don't look great." Damon commented and she gave a knowing shrug.

"Comes with the territory unfortunately. Being an animal for most of the night means you generally don't wake up looking as though you're a salon goddess." She joked and Nathan gave a knowing nod also.

Damon looked from one to the other. He was so glad that Stefan and he didn't change. Being a weird mutant Halfling was bad enough.

"Anyway, I just wanted to check on you both. How's the little one?"

"Strong. Think your baby chair is a goner. I'll get you a new one." Damon hinted towards the busted chair and she gaped.

"How..?"

"Legs of steel." Damon beamed almost proudly and she shook her head in amazement.

"That girl is…"

"A Salvatore." Damon grinned and Stefan chuckled in agreement.

The rest of the afternoon went relatively smoothly. Stefan napped with Vida in the bed as Damon and Nathan chatted about the upcoming few days where Constance had to be protected. One thing seemed clear – grandma wolf's attack couldn't be a coincidence at this timing. It just couldn't. Neither of them could figure out what had happened with Stefan earlier. It worried them both. Was grandma wolf trying to frighten them into leaving? It seemed possible. Why target Stefan though? Perhaps because he was the only one able to conceive other than Constance? Because he had a baby whose welfare he'd put above all others including newborn cubs? Perhaps.

Damon lay his head back on the sofa as Nathan chewed his way through a foot long sub, thinking.

_Maybe she is trying to make you guys leave in fear so she can get to Constance._

_How would she even know about Constance unless she's been watching us? Can they do that from the other side?_

_Who knows._

Damon closed his eyes and sighed. His cell buzzed and he lifted it to his ear without answering.

"Hmm-hm." He answered and Nathan stopped chewing to listen. "The basement. Yeah. No he said it happened in the lounge."

Nathan sat up straighter. It must be Bonnie the witch. Damon looked to him and nodded to himself.

_Let me talk to her._

"Ok." Damon said into the phone and looked to him again. "Hold on."

He passed his cell over to him and Nathan took it anxiously.

"Hey Bonnie."

Damon's stomach tightened as he listened and Nathan described the attack to her. He couldn't fight the instinctive urge to keep looking around for a shadow on the wall. He remembered the feeling when he was an animal. That feeling of something powerful and dangerous lurking near, but that was invisible at first. He stood up and walked to the bedroom, peaking in to check on his family. Stefan had barely slept, worried about Nathan as he'd been a wolf and the drive home on top of that had worn him out. Add to all of that, Vida crying about her gums and Stefan was close to dropping.

Damon had rubbed on the gel Stefan had brought from the seven eleven and it did seem to work a little better for her than brandy. Stefan hadn't even awoken the last time she'd cried because he was so exhausted, so Damon had taken over and applied the gel, tasting it a little and wrinkling his nose at the strong taste. Vida had fallen back asleep easily enough, snuggled into Stefan's embrace. His family. His precious two.

Nathan hung up the phone and he turned back to look at him in question.

"She says she picked up traces of energy similar to some of the spell. It's definitely her – grandma." He swallowed and Damon closed the bedroom door and folded his arms.

"Does she have any ideas?"

Nathan exhaled.

"Be on guard. She says that if she's had the power to attack me, then she must have help on the other side. It means that she could make an attempt and we have to be ready."

"Great." Damon huffed. "For the new baby?"

"Probably. It is her M.O."

"Yeah." Damon clenched his jaw. "What about her wanting Stefan. Did she have any idea on why?"

"She said that the fact that it was your house where the spell happened, makes it easier to connect to you two. Apparently, everyone leaves their energy behind someplace they've lived or visited often, so she reckons she wanted Stefan there to make sure she could draw on his energy to become more physical again."

"How?"

"She doesn't know. She reckons that Stefan's residual energy at the Boarding House was what gave her the power to be able to attack me, but having him there in the flesh would mean she could draw it directly from him."

"I thought Sabrina had sorted all of this crap! She shouldn't be able to do anything to us again!" Damon almost growled in frustration and Nathan squinted at him in confusion for a second before getting the Sabrina joke.

"Oh, right." He chuckled lightly and Damon rubbed his face.

"So what do we do?" Damon threw himself down into the chair next to him.

"I think, if she's trying to use Stefan's energy to become more…real and either enter the baby or take it over or something, then we keep Stefan away from Constance." Nathan suggested.

Damon chewed his lip.

"Why Stefan? Why not me? It's my house too."

"Maybe because Stefan can grow life?" Nathan offered and Damon frowned. "If this is still all to do with stealing new life to make herself strong enough to cross over, then it makes sense that she'd draw on someone who could create life. Someone who had, recently."

"Maybe."

"Listen alpha, in a few hours I'm going to change and I have to get myself out of here and to somewhere safe." Nathan reminded and Damon huffed. "I'm sorry."

"Damn moon crap."

"Preaching to the choir." Nathan mumbled unhappily and Damon looked at him, feeling pity. "I want to be here to help, but I can't control myself as a wolf."

"I'm on my own." Damon mumbled.

"I feel in my gut that you should keep Stefan away from Constance. She's not ready to blow yet anyway. If we can just make it through the next few days then she'll have the pack to protect her and we can get back to Mystic Falls and get Bonnie's help. End this once and for all."

"Is it every going to end Nathan?" Damon looked at him, feeling helpless.

"It's you two. Normal doesn't really go hand in hand huh?" Nathan gave an empathetic smile and Damon nodded slowly.

"He'll argue."

"I know, but he won't put Constance's baby in danger if you tell him all of this. Besides, Vida is vulnerable too. He won't want to leave her unattended. Use that." Nathan pointed out.

"Really wish you didn't have to go all America werewolf on me brother." Damon gave a small smile.

Nathan beamed a little at the compliment.

"What do you think happened to him earlier?" Damon frowned, thinking on Stefan fainting and then attacking him.

"Could he have fallen asleep and had a nightmare?"

"No, I felt pain from him." Damon said.

"I told Bonnie about it."

"What did she say?" Damon sat forward a little and Nathan sighed.

"Bonnie said to watch him. She's worried that grandma might have been trying to hurt him like she hurt me."

"Why? If she wants his energy, why injure him?"

"I don't know." Nathan shook his head.

They fell into contemplative silence and Damon turned his head towards the bedroom as he heard Stefan exhale deeply and move. Nathan watched him and looked at his watch.

"I should prepare." He stood up and Damon nodded. "I'll be back as soon as I wake up human."

"Ok."

Nathan grabbed one of Damon's jackets and slung it on. Having no clothes to wear because he'd left Mystic Falls on a whirlwind with Stefan earlier, had meant he'd had to borrow. He gave Damon a small smile of encouragement.

"I'll be back. Keep Stefan away, just in case. If this is all a coincidence then great, but, I think we need to prepare for the worst."

Damon nodded and looked at his jacket.

"Tear my clothes with your little paws and you're a dead man."

Nathan chuckled and opened the door, leaving quietly as Damon felt his chest squeeze at his absence already. It was nice to feel like he had backup. Why did Nathan have to be a wolf? How inconvenient. He could call Rick, but…no. Rick was strong and great with weapons but they needed supernatural strength and speed if grandma wolf was going to try anything.

He looked to the bedroom door again. So this was it then? All of the pack were going to be chewing on rabbits tonight while he tried to make sure their alpha's baby wasn't possessed or absorbed by some crazy spirit bitch, whilst at the same time trying to keep Stefan away just in case. Yeah, no problem!

At least Stefan wouldn't want to leave Vida unprotected now and that'd be a good way of keeping him away from any action. He just hoped that he wouldn't have to kill Constance or her baby to stop any demon wolf coming across from hell or wherever the hell grandma was. He wasn't sure how he'd explain that to the pack.

He was roused from his thoughts by Vida crying. He grunted, standing up and walking into the bedroom, hoping to catch her before Stefan woke. He cooed and walked over to the bed putting his finger to his lips to indicate that she needed to be quiet. She was facing Stefan and touching his face with her hands. Damon frowned, watching her and cooed at her again.

"Don't wake dadda." He whispered but she looked at him and then back to Stefan as she continued to touch his face.

Strange Stefan wasn't waking up. A feeling of uncertainty shivered through him and he leaned over and touched Stefan's shoulder. Vida continued to cry and channelled fear and Damon squeezed his shoulder, calling his name.

"Stefan? Stefan?"

Stefan gave no response and Damon climbed onto the bed and gathered him in his arms, leaving Vida to roll onto her back and watch as he cupped Stefan's face worriedly.

"Stefan? Stefan!" He said louder and Stefan opened his eyes in shock and jolted in his arms.

"Wha….what?" He cried and Damon exhaled in relief and allowed him to sit up. "What's wrong?"

"You wouldn't wake up. I was calling to you, but you just lay there." Damon studied him worriedly and Stefan rubbed his face.

"Daaaaa!" Vida cried, still afraid and sniffling and Damon scooped her up and held her upright so she could see Stefan was ok.

"I was just sleeping." Stefan assured and saw how distraught Vida was. "Hey, sorry angel. Dadda is fine. See?" He cooed and kissed her little hands as she reached for his face again.

She studied his face, with wide eyes and gave a small huff.

"You weren't asleep Stefan. I lifted you and you were unconscious." Damon frowned as Stefan playfully bit Vida's hands to make her smile.

Stefan sighed and shrugged.

"I feel fine."

"Bonnie thinks grandma wolf is trying to tap into your energy to have enough power to get to Constance's baby."

"Can she really do that?"

"Apparently. Maybe that's what she was trying to do to you earlier, to get at you like she did Nathan."

Stefan chewed his lip as he recalled the feeling of being pulled at. It hadn't felt like an attack though, it had felt more intimate than that.

"If she's trying to use me to get to Constance, then I shouldn't be with her." Stefan said and Damon sagged at the relief of not having to argue with him about it. "If she can steal energy though, can't she do it for any of us?"

"Well, she tapped Nathan already." Damon sighed and cuddled Vida as she put her face to his chest and held his neck.

"She could do it to you too." Stefan pointed out.

"Unless she needs you because you can…carry a baby." Damon swallowed nervously, not wanting to make him feel angry.

Stefan considered that.

"I mean, the whole spell was about getting to unborn babies – so you, Monique, Beth, Anne…"

"Mike." Stefan raised and Damon nodded grimly.

"Her attention was on all of you guys being fertile to attract mates first, then becoming pregnant and then taking it all from you. Whether me or Nathan or the other partners survived or not might not have affected the spell anyway. We're just donors." Damon said.

Stefan squeezed his hand but nodded. It made sense.

"If the baby is like us, part of our bloodline, I should stay as far away as possible just in case." Stefan decided and Damon didn't comment. "What do we do? Call the girls? Rick?"

"Why? They can't fight grandma wolf."

"To help you. What if she goes into labour? She must be about to, otherwise why would grandma be flexing her muscles. Damon, it must be happening either tonight or tomorrow night before the others become human for another month." Stefan stressed.

"I can handle it."

"How? She's human. Do you know how to deliver a real alive baby?"

Damon scowled.

"So I go, find a doctor and compel him to come over and stay with her for the next two days. Problem solved."

Stefan was going to argue when he paused. That idea could actually work. Ok, compelling some innocent human to sit around and be a babysitter for a few days wasn't fair, but what other choice did they have?

"What time is it?" Stefan looked around for a clock.

"Almost five." Damon handed Vida to him and Stefan cradled her and lifted her pacifier from the bed sheet and stuck it in her mouth as she gurned.

"Ok, do it. Just in case." Stefan nodded and he stood up nodding. "Just…please…"

Stefan said and sighed and Damon looked to him as he moved towards the door.

"Don't hurt whoever you bring back here ok? Just compel them to want to be here and help."

Damon gave a stiff nod moodily and rolled his eyes as he left the room to grab his keys. He got to the front door when he felt a moment of uncertainty. He looked back into the bedroom, watching Stefan let Vida play with his fingers.

"Stefan, if anything happens to you again…" he frowned.

"I'm fine. It's not me she really wants. I'll stay here until you get back, even if Constance calls. I won't take the chance." Stefan assured and Damon looked at him sceptically. "I won't put her baby in danger. Not for anything."

"Ok." Damon said.

_Love._

_Love, hurry back my black haired one._

Damon left, speeding out of the camp like a whirlwind as he headed for the nearest village. They was bound to be a doctor somewhere nearby. Hell even someone with basic medical training would do, because he had no idea what to do on his own if labour was to go down. He had to drag someone back now and wait this nightmare out. The wolves better damn thank him after all of this!


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17 TH

Stefan waited until he heard the clear sounds of Damon's car leaving the camp, before he let out the breath he'd been holding. His head throbbed. He lay down on his side, facing Vida as she studied his face.

"It's ok angel. Just feel a little tired that's all." He soothed and stroked her head.

He closed his eyes, grimacing from the headache. The past few days had taken it out of him. He just wanted to sleep and feel normal when he woke up. Vida gurned and touched his face again, wriggling and he opened his eyes.

"What is it baby?" He whispered and she searched his face. "What's wrong?"

She patted his face and sucked on her pacifier. Maybe she could tell his head hurt.

"I'm ok." He gave a small smile.

He grabbed the blanket and brought it up around them, making a nest. She watched him throughout. He pulled her into his chest and kissed her head, sniffing her scent at the top of her head. The nest felt safe, like a haven. Vida closed her eyes and sighed. He stroked her back and tried to relax. He wasn't sure what he would do if something happened before Damon got back. What if Constance did call? Damon and Nathan's theory was simply _that_ …a theory. He couldn't leave a pregnant woman to fend for herself based on a theory.

He frowned thinking it through. Grandma wolf had tried it on with Nathan. So she had some physical presence. He wasn't sure he believed that she was going to try the baby soul hijacking trick again. It seemed too obvious for his liking. Vida made a small sound and he smiled. She was dreaming. He scented the top of her head softly.

One thing was for sure, even if grandma wanted to, there was no way she'd be able to steal Vida's energy. Vida was a volcano! Strong-willed, fiery and determined. If anything, he could rely on her little soul being able to fend off attempts at her body. She was just too darn stubborn and moody to be sucked out into the ether.

He chuckled silently as she made a small shouting sound and moved around. Clearly she was having a disagreement with someone in her dream. He'd noticed, much to his amusement, how she'd begun to show her displeasure when she didn't get what she wanted or when Damon was being an ass. Yes, she was going to be a handful.

He closed his eyes and tried to relax, willing the headache to go away when he became aware of a depression in the mattress behind him. He stirred a little and mumbled, feeling tired and groggy. A small hand settled on his head, stroking through his hair and he sighed. It felt good, nice.

When had Damon gotten home?

A soft melodic tune began and he felt his body relax as though lulled by it. Someone was playing music nearby, no singing. Yes, it was singing. Maybe Constance was singing to her baby bump. People did that, didn't they? He gave a small smile. The tune was so comforting. Vida moved against him and he awoke slightly, opening his eyes. The music seemed to fade. Vida yawned and made a gurning sound and he looked behind to kiss Damon, when he realised they were alone. He sat up confused and touched his hair. He'd definitely felt fingers comb through his hair.

The hairs on his arms stood on end and he gulped nervously. Had it been a dream? Just like the singing? He removed the nest from them and looked around the room carefully. He felt on edge. He tuned in his wolf ears for sound and heard nothing but a coffee machine chugging away – probably in Constance's lodge. He looked at the clock. The moon would be out so everyone else would be in wolf form.

He rose from the bed, cushioning around Vida with pillows and moved through to the lounge, checking for signs of any intruders. His body vibrated, fuelling him with adrenaline. He'd felt a similar feeling the last time the moon had been out when they were fighting for their lives and the babies in Mystic Falls. His teeth almost tingled. He touched them and shook his head. It was so strange to be part wolf, but not quite enough for him to change. A part of him actually wished he could change, but then again, the others had described how painful it was and he didn't want that aspect of it.

He poured a bourbon and called Constance on his cell to check she was alright. She answered cheerily and assured him there was no labour and she was fine.

"Trust me Stefan, if I go into labour you'll hear me with those ears. Hell, even with human ones, you'll hear me!" She joked and he felt himself begin to relax again.

He chatted with her for another few minutes before he sat down and began to write in his journal.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thankfully Damon didn't have to look too long. Someone had totalled their car on the freeway and he pulled over and grabbed one of the EMT's, compelling him to accompany him back to the camp. Stefan would no doubt want to know whether Damon had let the guy attend to the injured party first, but he couldn't care less at the moment. He felt deep in his bones that something wasn't right and something was looming. Everything they knew or thought they knew about this whole situation was just theory. Nathan seemed convinced he knew what was going to happen, but something didn't feel right.

If grandma wolf was going to make a play for the new baby, then of course she'd know they'd figure that out and try and stop her. She'd really screwed up in making an attempt at Stefan earlier –if that was indeed what had transpired. Maybe she thought she could steal enough energy to attack them all, get them out of the way so she could get to Constance. Maybe, maybe, maybe….

The EMT stared straight ahead, dazed as Damon roared into the camp and came to a quick halt outside of their lodge. He jumped out, leaving the human behind and entered, calling out for Stefan.

"In here." Stefan answered, looking up from his journal and sipping on some bourbon.

Damon stared at him in surprise and looked him over.

"You ok?"

"Yeah. You get a doctor?" Stefan asked casually and Damon nodded.

Stefan gave a small smile and returned to reading his page. Damon stood unsure of his strange attitude.

_Anxiety._

Damon channelled and Stefan flicked his eyes up to him and raised his eyebrows. Vida began to cry in the bedroom and Damon watched as Stefan continued to read. Damon looked towards the bedroom door, noticing it was closed and he blinked, looking back to Stefan. Stefan took another sip of bourbon without taking his eyes from the page.

Damon frowned, moving towards the room and going inside to collect her. She tucked her face into his neck and he bounced her a little, surprised when Stefan didn't follow him in.

"It's ok princess." He whispered into her hair and felt his stomach tighten.

_Fear, unease._

Damon exhaled at her channelling and he nodded in agreement. Something wasn't right here and it wasn't right with Stefan. He walked back through to the lounge and stopped to look at him again. Stefan was still reading.

"Little blood machine?" Damon said in an unsure voice.

"Hmmmn?"

"Stefan." Damon croaked, fear evident in his voice.

"What?" Stefan looked up at him and noticing Vida as though he'd forgotten about her.

He blinked hard and stood up in surprise.

"Hey baby girl. What's wrong?" He took her from Damon's arms and Damon watched him.

"Why did you leave her alone?"

"She's fine. We're fine Damon." Stefan said dismissively. "Constance is fine. You know, I think you and Nathan are getting a little ahead of yourselves. We don't really know anything."

Damon frowned and studied his demeanour as Stefan sat down in the rocking chair holding her up on her feet by her hands and cooing to her. She wobbled a little but seemed to smile once more as Stefan praised her.

"Sure." Damon admitted but he still felt uneasy. "I'll, go and get the doctor and check on her anyway." Damon said after watching silently for a few minutes.

"Ok." Stefan didn't take his eyes off of Vida as he left.

He walked out to the car and paused beside it, running his hands through his hair in worry. Stefan seemed ambivalent, dazed even. He pulled the doctor out of the car and compelled him to set up camp in Constance's house. He walked him over to the lodge and chapped on the door. Constance answered after a few minutes – evidently finding it harder to move in her state.

"Damon." She smiled. "Where's Stefan?"

"He's…" he hesitated.

He didn't want the other wolves to know there might be more potential danger until they knew if there was just yet. He'd have to make something up.

"He's fine, sleeping."

Constance nodded and let them in.

"Nisha told me Nathan was attacked by something. Do we know what or why?" She took a seat and looked to the compelled human in interest.

"Not yet." Damon said and sat the human down.

"What the hell is this?" Constance asked, staring at the human up and down.

"Your mid-wife, if you need one."

She looked at him judgingly.

"You've used mind control?"

"Didn't really know how to explain the need for birthing a were-baby during a full moon when the rest of your 'family' are chewing on deer and rabbits outside the camp."

She huffed annoyed.

"My baby will be human Damon. Un-cursed and will hopefully stay that way if I can help it." She reminded and he nodded.

It seemed so normal for him to expect that all babies of supernatural parents would be born supernatural too. Then again, wolves were different and remained human all of their days unless they killed someone and triggered the curse.

"Still, thought we could use some back up. Didn't think you'd appreciate me down there." He smirked, trying to lighten the mood and she blushed slightly and sighed.

"Yeah." She nodded. "Well, I suppose this is sensible."

"Yup." He said.

"You don't have to stay with me. I'll call if I need anything. I really don't see anything happening though." She patted her stomach and he smirked and nodded, casting a look at the dazed human once more.

He walked towards the front door before he heard her call on him again. He turned and raised an eyebrow.

"Is Stefan ok?"

"Why do you ask?" He enquired, feeling anxious again.

She seemed to ponder on it for a few seconds before she shrugged.

"I don't know, just female intuition maybe."

He swallowed and gave a polite nod and reassuring smile. He left the lodge and stopped outside of theirs, taking a few breaths. Even Constance had noticed Stefan wasn't acting quite himself. Time to figure this out.

He went into the lodge to find it empty and he panicked.

_Stefan? Where are you?!_

He channelled, going outside and stopping when he saw how large the moon was above him. He felt his body buzzing with energy and he touched his face to check he wasn't transforming. Still his usual face, but he felt so much more aware of everything in his body. How odd.

_We are on our way to Seven Eleven. She needs better ointment for her gums. Another tooth came through._

Stefan channelled and Damon exhaled in relief and smiled.

_How far away are you?_

_Just left. Be back in ten minutes. Love._

_Ok. Love._

He shook his head at himself. Maybe he was just imagining things – trying to create a problem where there was none. He went back into the lodge, pausing when he heard a wolf howl. He turned to see if he could see the source but even his vampire eyes could locate it. This forest was quite dense. As long as they kept a good distance from the camp, then he didn't have to worry.

Stefan arrived back at the lodge a short time later and they bathed Vida together, Damon beginning to feel more relaxed as the normality of the moment eased his mind.

Vida splashed in the sink until they were both soaked and giggled hysterically, proudly showing off a tooth on the top of her gums as she did so.

"There's more water out here than in there!" Damon grumbled as he tried to dry the floor and Stefan chuckled and lifted her out onto his chest to dry her.

"I'll put her down for the night, you should check on Constance." Stefan kissed his mouth chastely on the way past him to the bedroom and he nodded.

He paused at the doorway, watching as Vida clapped, looking up at Stefan as he dressed her and chatted to her. He smiled. They both froze and looked towards each other as they heard a loud wolf howl not far from their lodge.

_Danger._

Stefan channelled and Vida looked up at his face seriously, pausing her efforts to kick her feet out of her pyjamas.

"It's close. Closer than they should be." Damon nodded.

They both stood up straight, full of adrenaline and looked towards the door to the lounge.

"I'll have a look." Damon blurred into the lounge and opened the front door, peering out.

Stefan lifted Vida and cooed at her, bouncing her as he waited nervously. The wolves had explained that they didn't have human control or sense when they were animals. They always made sure that they stayed as far away from their camp as possible to protect the non-turning pack members. Why the hell was one so close and were they a danger because of it? Would a wolf turn up here and attack like an animal would?

"Damon?" Stefan called nervously and Damon walked outside.

_Stay there. Keep her inside Little Blood Machine._

Stefan huffed irritated. His eyesight was better than Damon's. He could get a better look out there. Frustrating having to be left looking after an infant while he could be hunting. He shook his head at himself as Vida stuck her fingers into his mouth and he kissed them.

"I don't mean that princess." He whispered, sure that somehow she'd heard his thoughts.

She searched his face and gave a small frown.

Damon walked back into the lodge and stood at the front door again, looking in at them.

"I think it just strayed a little bit but it seems to have gone back into the woods."

"Should we move over to Constance and make sure we are all together just in case?" Stefan pondered and Damon shook his head.

"They won't get into a lodge anyway, even if they do end up in the camp. We should just stay inside till morning." Damon suggested and Stefan frowned. "I'll go and…"

Damon was cut off by another loud, nearby howl and they both froze again, wide eyed.

_That howl is closer! Get in!_

Stefan channelled in a panic and squeezed Vida to him as she turned her head in curiosity towards the sound.

"Damn dogs!" Damon growled, his vampire face showing. "I'll break its legs!"

"You don't know who it is! It could be Nathan!" Stefan reminded and Damon nodded as he thought on that.

"If it comes near…" Damon began when a flash of colour passed and knocked him over, out of the lodge.

Stefan shouted in surprise and took a step forward.

_Get inside, get inside!_

Damon channelled and Stefan flew to the front door and slammed it shut, his heart pounding as he heard Damon growling and cursing outside, evidently fighting with something.

Vida began to scream and ball her eyes out and Stefan held her in fear. Damon was out there on his own fighting a wolf. How many were there? Was it just one?

_Damon!_

"Down boy!" Damon roared and there were crashing sounds and yelping outside.

Stefan moved through to the bedroom and looked around. If only he could lay Vida down somewhere and go out and help him but they didn't have a damn crib and he couldn't leave her alone so frightened anyway.

"For god sake!" Stefan shouted in annoyance and she cried all the more. "I'm sorry baby."

He rocked her and kissed her head, pacing the floor until he heard a loud thud and what sounded like an animal running past the lodge. He went through to the lounge as Damon practically fell in the door, covered in bite marks and scratches. Stefan lay Vida on her play mat and went to him, supporting him as he closed the door behind him.

They leaned their faces together and Stefan scented his face worriedly.

"I'm alright." He panted and Stefan held him in a fierce hug. "It's ok, lady impossible."

"How many?" Stefan searched his face for any more wounds as his body began to heal.

"One. Big fucker."

"It attacked you? What the hell is going on?" Stefan said worriedly. "It should still be able to smell that you're pack, family."

Damon paused a little as he said that in realization. Stefan frowned.

"What?"

"Smell." Damon mumbled and frowned. "It didn't…"

"Nathan still knew I was pack when I let him smell me, even when he was hurt. I just had to get close enough." Stefan said anxiously as Damon's eyes widened.

"Holy crap." Damon paled. "Stefan, that wolf wasn't one of us then."

"What?" Stefan backed away and lifted the still wailing Vida.

"You couldn't get much closer to that wolf than I did and it went for me. I know I'm not popular around this pack but that wolf showed no recognition. None." Damon wiped some blood from his hands on his jeans as Stefan realized just how huge this was.

"But, there aren't any packs nearby. Just us."

"Well now there is."

"What the hell does that mean?" Stefan handed Vida over to him and she touched his face with her hands, almost as though she was checking his wounds too.

"Screw staying here. That's what!" He huffed. "Let's get the hell out of here before more come."

Damon rushed through to the bedroom and Stefan turned around, looking for a bag to throw so things in. He paused when he headed for the bedroom.

"We can't leave Constance." He realized and Damon sighed loudly in annoyance and shook his head as he bounced Vida on one hip and grabbed some of her things.

"She'll be fine."

"No she won't. We have to bring her."

"Stefan, she's a wolf, let her deal with other wolves ok? This isn't our problem."

"That's a bunch of crap and you know it!" Stefan snapped and Damon growled in irritation.

Stefan turned around and walked through to the front door again, listening for any animals sounds or approach. He opened the door and went out, tuning in his senses.

_Stefan, come back in here! It's not safe!_

_Stay where you are! I'm going to get her._

He blurred to Constance's door and chapped before entering quickly. She was asleep on the sofa with a strange, dazed human sitting opposite. It seemed like a creepy set up.

"Constance?" He moved to her, shaking her shoulder lightly.

She frowned and opened her eyes.

"Constance we have to get out of here. A wolf from another pack just attacked Damon right outside."

"What?" She sat up on alert, wincing at her quick movement and rubbing her stomach.

"A wolf, a big one. It was prowling outside and it wasn't one of us."

She stared at him confused and horrified.

"Is that normal?" He pushed, trying to help her up.

She chewed her lip and sniffed around, tuning in her senses.

"No." Was her simple response.

"Then let's leave until the others turn back in the morning. Then we can figure out what's happening."

She studied him, almost suspiciously and he felt himself bristle under her scrutiny.

"What's wrong?" He asked and her eyes widened fractionally.

"You. What's wrong with you?" She asked, sounding a little alarmed.

"What?" He frowned and she pushed him away, growling. "Constance, what's…"

They both whirled around as they saw a shadow sweep across the wall. Constance growled again and held her stomach and Stefan felt his whole body shake. Grandma wolf!

"Stay back, stay back!" Stefan motioned for Constance to keep a distance from it as he growled and snapped his fangs at the shadow.

It came to rest on one wall and he panted, watching it in horror.

"You're not getting her." He growled, standing in front of Constance. "You're not getting any of us!"

_Stefan where the fuck are you?!_

_Damon, grandma is here!_

Stefan's heart beat loudly, deafeningly as the shadow remained. Despite its lack of action, it remained a menacing presence, like a huge blacker spider sitting in wait.

"What is it?" Constance asked shakily.

"A spirit. The first wolf spirit." He explained, not taking his eyes from it.

"What does it want?"

"Your baby." He said stiffly and heard her heart race in fear. "I won't let that happen, I swear."

"You brought it here!" She accused and he looked around at her, confused.

Had he?

"You brought it to my house!" She shouted, clutching her stomach.

"No, I…" he stumbled, when the shadow moved and Constance yelled out in fear.

Stefan moved to her, trying to use his body as a shield as they both looked around wildly for where the shadow had gone.

"Where did it go? How did it get here?" Constance cried out and he shook his head unsure. "This land is protected. It can't be here on its own!"

"What?" He looked to her again.

"It must have come _on_ you." She said and pushed him away from her again. "It's riding you!"

"What?" He gasped, astonished at the look of anger on her face.

"This is sacred land! No spirit can enter without a flesh and blood body. Get away from me Stefan!" She shouted and he opened his mouth fearfully. "Get out!"

Damon burst in the front door with Vida strapped to his chest and Stefan turned around in fear.

"Get out!" Constance screamed. "Get it away from my baby!"

The shadow circled them again and Stefan blurred out of the lodge, leaving Damon growling as the shadow followed him.

_Stefan!_

Stefan moved to their lodge and ran inside, panting and looking around. Was it true? Was grandma wolf somehow attached to him? To his body somehow? Had Nathan been right about Grandma wolf deliberately attracting him back to Mystic Falls so she could use him somehow?

He looked around the walls and saw the shadow again. It must be true. If it wasn't attached to him, it would have stayed and attacked Constance. That meant wherever he went, it would follow.

"Oh my god!" He cried out.

What if Grandma wolf hurt Vida? What if she attached herself to his angel?

"Stefan!" Damon ran in and paused when he saw the shadow.

"Get away from me!" Stefan shouted, looking to Vida's tear stained face and Damon panted a little confused as Stefan blurred through to the bedroom. "Get her out of here!"

The shadow followed him into the room and he began to weep.

_Stefan…_

_She'll hurt you both! She's tied to me. Get away from me so she can't get the babies!_

Damon began to tear up and took one last look at him in the bedroom before he left the lodge, hurrying back to Constance. Constance was throwing some clothes into a bag when he came back in and she growled at him as he entered.

"Enough wolf crap! Get your ass in the car!" Damon snapped.

She held her stomach and gasped, looking to him wide eyed for a second.

"You've gotta be kidding me lady!" Damon groaned. "Now?"

"It wants my baby!"

"Then get your butt in the damn car!" He commanded and looked at the vacant human, moving to him and pulling him to his feet to bring him with them.

Constance moved to the door and opened it when suddenly she yelled and fell backwards inside. He caught her and held her upright as he saw what had startled her. A pack of hungry looking wolves, standing outside the hut with yellow eyes and fangs bared.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18 TH

"What do you want?!" Stefan screamed at the shadow, panting as it remained still on the wall, loaming over him. "Haven't you done enough to us? You killed some of us…your own descendants and now you want to kill more?!"

He backed himself against the far away wall and watched it. Silly perhaps, to assume that it would talk, that it even could.

"Well you won't get to any of them. Not through me. If I have to leave them all forever to prevent that then I will!"

After he'd said the words, he realised they were true. If this thing was connected to him now, stuck to him somehow, then it might always be. It could make an attempt at others anytime it wanted. He'd have to stay away from the mates and babies. His heart fell and his eyes filled with tears.

"You're a monster. A monster from a nightmare." He croaked. "And all just to kill Klaus. You're worse than he ever was."

He sank to the floor.

_Danger! Teeth, babies…_

He felt Damon channel and he blinked, standing up again. What could he do? If he went out there to help, then the shadow would follow.

_Damon are you ok?_

_Stay inside Little Blood Machine! Wolves everywhere!_

Stefan gasped and propelled himself to the lounge to look through the peephole in the door. What the fuck was going on? A pack of wolves prowling around their territory whilst the rest of their pack were hunting. This seemed like a set up. He looked around at the room and saw the shadow had moved with him.

"Did you do this?! Why? There are people here!" He demanded and it flew at him, knocking him over.

He panted, coughing and holding his chest and scrambled onto his feet again, looking around wildly. It flew at him again from across the room and he stumbled trying to escape and threw the door open. He blurred outside and was confronted by the strange wolves baring their teeth aggressively at him. He halted in fear, seeing how large they were. Could he outrun them?

The alpha growled angrily and seemed to increase in size as it approached him. He felt his inner wolf charge in him and he bore his fangs in challenge. They might be large, but he was also vampire. A delicious feeling of superiority filtered through him slowly and he grinned, almost enjoying the idea of breaking them all, breaking their legs so they couldn't move…

He panicked horrified at where his thoughts were going and tried to shake himself out of it. The wolves circled him, sniffing and sussing him out and he made growling sounds. Grandma wolf was still behind him, he could feel her. She was waiting, but for what? He took a deep breath. Was this surge of violence and aggression coming from her? Did she want him to kill these wolves? Had she lined them up to test his strength?

"Please…I haven't changed, but I'm a wolf too…" he said confidently and looked to the alpha standing beside him now. "Don't do this."

There was a loud howl of pain that attracted all of the wolves' attention and they looked towards Constance's lodge. It wasn't just the howl of a human in pain, but a wolf.

"This isn't your land and our pack will be back soon." Stefan said with a hint of warning in his tone. "Leave and I won't hurt you."

The wolves grumbled and snorted, moving around each other as though deliberating. Clearly it was unusual to come near another pack's territory, especially while cubs were being birthed. Real wolves…whether their rules were different he didn't know, they were animals in the truest sense, but werewolves were human too and it affected their thinking.

Stefan felt a coldness pressing on his back and he whirled around and saw the shadow nearer to him than before.

"Stay back!" He growled and snapped his fangs, his vampire face showing and the wolves reacted to the presence of a vampire like usual – they began to dive for him and attack. He fell forward and was forced to fight as jaws grabbed at him. He hurtled bodies into the woods, trying to reduce the numbers so he stood a fighting chance and felt himself begin to enjoy it again, laugh even.

It was a level playing field with so many wolves though and he yelled out in pain as his left arm was ripped off. He screamed horrified and fell forward.

_Stefan?!_

He looked over in slow motion at the lodge and saw Damon throw the door open, eyes wide.

_No, that's what she wants. She wants to get to you._

Stefan held his shoulder and growled, trying to stand up again and noticed the shadow moving towards the wolves now. They all seemed afraid and snapped back at it. He gasped for breath as his blood poured down his body and he looked to his severed arm.

_Mate, injured! Kill!_

Stefan looked over at Damon's face as he began to move towards him with the seething intention of killing every last wolf around, when Stefan realised that that left Vida and a very pregnant wolf inside unprotected. No. He couldn't be a distraction. That's what this might have been.

Sacred land.

Constance had said that this camp was built on sacred land and that a spirit couldn't be here freely without being attached to a body. How did he shake her the hell off of him? He looked up at the moon, begging for some divine guidance and felt his face tingle. He opened his mouth and let out a howl of distress, his inner wolf viscously fighting against this phantom. She wanted a body, his body because he was strong and fast and one of the mates. How the hell had this happened in the first place? Was it because they were kin? So many unanswered questions and he didn't have time! He had to get her out of here!

He looked to Damon again, almost over to him by now and he swallowed hard.

_I love you my black haired one._

Damon paused for a second and frowned in concern, looking at his arm and Stefan felt his heart tear.

_Tell Vida, that I'll always protect her. That I'll always know where she is._

_What are you talking about Stefan?_

Stefan lifted his severed arm and before giving Damon another second, he blurred off into the woods and kept running. He'd never stop running. Not until he had killed Grandma wolf forever and that day wasn't going to be today.

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Chaos had ensued for several hours later but Damon could do nothing but sit, staring at the wall as Vida cuddled into him. Stefan was gone, he was too fast, always a faster runner than him and when he'd taken off, he hadn't been able to catch him. What the hell was he doing? He'd heard Vida channel fear and smelled the blood coming from Constance and he'd had to turn back. He couldn't leave his baby girl.

She made a soft sob in her sleep and snuggled her face into his chest and he lay a gentle kiss on her head. The sun would rise any minute now and the pack would return.

The human doctor walked into the room and sat down exhausted, across from him and dazed once more. He'd fulfilled his purpose now. He'd delivered three babies. Constance was fine and yet Damon couldn't muster any emotion on the topic at all. He felt numb. At least the pack would be happy that the new cubs were safe and well, but they had some damn explaining to do! Like, why the hell did the other wolves come here? How come they acted as a pack rather than running around on their own – which was what Nathan had said that most wolves did. Why hadn't they come back when they'd heard their howls for assistance? Why hadn't they noticed intruders on their land?

He shook his head and closed his eyes, exhaling.

"You can go now doc." He murmured and the human turned to look at him.

He sighed, feeling as though he didn't even have the energy to compel the man to forget what he'd been involved in, but Stefan would want him to. Stefan would. He motioned for the human to approach him and widened his pupils.

"You don't remember anything that happened here. You went to help someone who'd crashed their car when they hit you on the head and robbed you. You're going to walk back to where I found you and wake up." He instructed and the human blinked when he sat back and sighed again.

The human frowned confused and then stood up, leaving the lodge and walking out of the camp. Damon stroked Vida's head and waited, counting the minutes. Finally he heard movement. Someone walking, no, staggering to he and Stefan's lodge – it must be Nathan. He stood up, cradling Vida as she squirmed and went outside to look.

Nathan looked bloodied and tired and went inside of their lodge, not noticing him. Damon blurred inside and Nathan jolted in fear.

_Alpha._

He channelled relieved and sat down, holding himself. Damon sniffed him, sensing several injuries and Nathan nodded that he was ok.

"What happened?"

"I don't know. It's hard to remember when you're out there, there's too much animal in the brain, but I think there must have been other wolves nearby."

"Yeah no shit!" Damon spat and Vida gurned.

He carefully moved into the bedroom and cushioned her in their bed safely and closed the door a little before continuing his gruelling. Nathan was already moving around the room and sniffing when he walked back in and they looked at each other.

"They were here." Nathan stated.

"Bingo."

"How many?"

"I killed a few and Stefan got some good but I reckon thirteen. Probably down to seven or eight now."

Nathan paled and sat down again shaking his head.

"That doesn't make sense. Wolves live by a code. They don't come into each other's territories, especially not when there are human pack members present. Unless…"

"Unless?" Damon pushed, still standing.

"Unless they are declaring war, trying to challenge the alpha."

Damon sat down and rubbed his face and Nathan finally realised Stefan's absence.

"Where's Stefan?"

Damon huffed and began to chuckle as though he was unhinged and Nathan sat forward, wincing and holding his ribs as he did so and searched his face.

"Being Stefan. He's martyring himself to save us all."

"What?" Nathan frowned.

"Grandma wolf made a play. Somehow she was stuck to him, to his energy and so he took off so she couldn't get the babies." Damon sat back and looked at the ceiling.

"The babies! Did the babies come?"

"Yup. Needed a damn drawer to pop them all in." Damon said sounding bored.

Nathan stood up and paced.

"Stefan left to take the spirit with him?"

"You're on a roll wolfie." Damon smirked to himself and Nathan moved to his feet and knelt down, squeezing his knees.

_Listen to me, this is me alpha. I'm one of yours._

Damon blinked sadly and swallowed.

_Don't shut me out. We will find him._

"You've known us five minutes Nathan. Don't think you're an expert." Damon said irritated. "Let me tell you this, if Stefan doesn't want to be found, he won't be."

"Why wouldn't he?" Nathan asked confused and Damon shrugged, contemplatively.

"It was just the words he used. Sounded like he would be away for a long time."

"Because he thinks he's protecting you."

"That's his M.O."

Nathan released his knees and sat back exhaling. He felt done in, but now wasn't the time for sleeping. They had to find Stefan. If grandma wolf was still trying to mess with him and he was on the run, he'd be looking for help.

"Where would he go for help?"

"I dunno." Damon sounded so defeated and Nathan squeezed his knees again worriedly.

_Can you feel him?_

Nathan channelled and Damon's eyes filled with tears that he swallowed down, clenching his jaw.

_No._

Nathan sat back again. They shared a soul and if they weren't connecting it must be why Damon seemed so depleted. Hadn't stuff like this happened to them before? His eyes widened as he considered it.

"Has Stefan taken your bottles?"

Damon opened his eyes wider and stood up immediately, moving around him to check their bottle store. They were all still there! He whirled around suddenly very afraid and Nathan stood too, mirroring his expression.

"He wouldn't have forgotten. He couldn't have!" Damon argued with himself.

"Could grandma have been messing with his head too?"

"But why? She knows he feeds only from me! If she wanted to use him, he'd be useless if he starves! Just like when Klaus took him." Damon pulled at his hair.

"She knows you'll follow." Nathan surmised. "So she'll make sure he won't be hard to find."

Damon slammed on the wall of the bottle store and panted, waking Vida and Nathan went to attend to her as Damon slid down to the floor and tried to figure everything out. Why hitch a ride on Stefan to get to the babies and then drive Stefan out of camp? Unless it wasn't the babies she was wanting all along, maybe it was Stefan. Why? How? And now this with the blood…why get Stefan to run only to leave proverbial breadcrumbs leading to him? If Nathan was right, then she would make sure that Damon found him if she wanted to continue to use Stefan, so why make him run in the first place. Why make him feel like he had to. Then again, it might have been completely Stefan's decision to run, but he wouldn't be stupid enough not to take some bottles.

"We just want to live." Damon whispered to himself and put his head in his hands, beginning to weep.

They'd come so far. They had finally been accepted into this pack. They'd been through a fresh horror of mania and heat and they'd come through it. Why couldn't they just live now?

He cried as soundlessly as he could, feeling his tears drip onto the floor. It had been an age since he'd really cried like this. It was something he normally fought, but he just didn't have the energy. Nathan rocked Vida, cooing softly and channelling to her lots of images of the moon and the forest at night – the animals that were nocturnal and she seemed fascinated enough by the visual to calm and quieten as she stared up at him. He listened, trying not to grimace as he heard Damon weep. That was new.

Apart they really did seem weaker in lots of ways. Stefan was Damon's guidance and strength and Damon was Stefan's strength and motivation. Grandma wolf knew that. So why separate them?

"Dadda?" Vida chirped and Nathan gave a small smile and stroked her hair.

"He'll be back soon."

Damon moved from the bottle store and Nathan straightened his expression to pretend he hadn't noticed his emotion. Damon stood at the doorway and looked in at them.

"Will you turn again tonight?"

"No. Not this month." Nathan said relieved and Damon gave a small nod and looked at Vida.

"Good."

"Why?"

"I need a babysitter." Damon moved over to his dresser and pulled out a bag, stuffing some items inside for later.

"I'm going with you!" Nathan said indignantly and stood up, holding Vida on his hip as she watched Damon silently.

"You're too slow. I have to move fast." Damon shook his head but kept his back turned.

"Damon, I can't sit around here while Stefan is…"

"He is mine!" Damon looked around and snapped and Nathan clenched his jaw.

"He is my pack too!" He snapped back and Vida looked from one to the other. "You're not the only one who cares for him!"

Damon braced his hands on either side of his dresser and laughed cruelly.

"Of course you do." He turned around angrily. "And you've made it abundantly clear just how much you care!"

Vida began to cry and Nathan bounced her as Damon returned to packing some things.

Nathan took a few deep breaths.

"I can't help it." He said quietly and Damon huffed. "But it means that I'll fight for him just as hard as you will to get him back. To make him safe."

"He doesn't need your protection." Damon sighed and paused again. "He's much scarier and dangerous than any of us combined if he needs to be."

Nathan nodded in acknowledgement of that. They weren't riding off on white horses to save a Damsel.

"If she gets inside of him somehow…" Damon trailed off as the fear of that thought filled him.

Could she turn his emotions off? Turn Stefan off completely and take him over? If she had that ability, then why hadn't she just done that to any of them while they were under her spell and were helpless animals. It didn't make sense.

"She can't. He isn't an infant, an innocent." Nathan advised and Vida reached out for Damon she struggled against Nathan unhappily.

Damon sighed unhappily and turned to them again, reaching out to take her as he tried to compose himself. She put her arms around his neck and buried her face against his collarbone. He rubbed her back and wilted.

"You're working from one life force here and Stefan is far enough away that you can't feel him. You'll need help. You won't be as badass as you're used to." Nathan pointed out and Damon cringed at that knowledge but couldn't deny it.

"She'll lead us to him."

"So we just have to figure out why she needs time with him away from you. Why the separation?" Nathan posed and Damon scented Vida's head.

A knock sounded at the door and Nathan went to answer as Damon buried his nose in Vida's hair. It was Ian.

"Is everyone ok?" Ian entered, looking around and Nathan nodded. "The camp is covered in the smell of another pack. What happened?"

Damon walked through and looked to him.

"It was an ambush. Another pack were sent here to keep us all apart while our old friend Grandma wolf tried to get to us."

Ian's eyes widened and he frowned trying to comprehend.

"You remember the spell that originally brought all the mates together and completed their wolf gene transformation? Well it was the original wolf who was behind it. She can use someone's life force to steal energy enough to bring herself back and till now, it was only babies she could it with." Nathan explained.

"Until now?" Ian asked pensively, raising and eyebrow.

"She hitched a ride on Stefan when he came to rescue me from my attack." Nathan swallowed remorsefully. "I knew she wanted him, I just didn't understand why. She's never been able to touch us before."

"But this land is consecrated. No spirit can roam freely here, even holding onto someone. How is that even..?" Ian ran his hands into his hair. "We need Nisha."

"She back yet?" Nathan asked and Ian went to the door and left, walking towards her lodge.

Nathan and Damon looked to each other silently.

_They're your pack now. This is now their business too. Use them._

Nathan drew him a commanding look and Damon huffed petulantly but nodded.

Ian came back over quickly.

"She's just back, getting washed. Did Constance..?"

"Three of them." Damon answered and Nathan and Ian both smiled happy and impressed.

"You looked after her. Thank you." Ian squeezed his shoulder and Vida turned her face to look at him. "Wait, where _is_ Stefan?" He suddenly realised.

"He left to keep the babies safe. We still weren't sure if she would try something with them. He ran to protect us all and took the spirit with him." Nathan said and Damon let Vida stick her fingers into his mouth and suck them.

Ian ran his hands through his hair again.

"We'll find him. Get it off of him somehow. Nisha will know what to do." Ian nodded to himself and looked to Damon. "What's your plan?"

Damon blinked in surprise that he was being asked to make the plan. He was so used to just having to go with the flow in this pack.

"He needs my blood. I'll be able to find him."

"And I can track him too." Nathan added.

"Spirit stuff is completely foreign to us. We'll need a witch or something." Ian looked to Damon.

"I know a witch."

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Stefan ran until he couldn't anymore. His shoulder ached and he began to fear that it wouldn't grow back. He'd never lost a full limb before. It should grow back, but he wouldn't believe it until he'd seen it. He collapsed against a tree, panting furiously and trying to hold the severed arm to his shoulder in hope. He'd lost the sight of the shadow a while back and he hoped that he'd shaken her.

Now that he'd stopped and the adrenaline had begun to wear off he began to panic. What if his arm didn't join onto his shoulder? What if Grandma wolf wasn't gone and she found him and took him over. He'd begun to feel as though she could and nothing terrified him more than giving her access to his body. He was half vampire, half human and a third werewolf, plus mated, a ripper, faster than his mate…he could be lethal if taken over. He couldn't let that happen.

He groaned, tears spilling down his face as he cradled the dead arm and watched, begging it to reattach. What he really needed was Damon's blood to help, but he hadn't had the time to grab some. Damon would never have let him run.

He laid his head back and tried to breathe. He was far enough away now that the babies should be safe. He'd stopped by the caves that Damon had been kept in and had smothered himself in some of the rock dust to prevent Damon from being able to channel to him. He knew it was harsh but Damon wouldn't care. He only cared about the three of them and if the shadow got to the babies, Damon would feel bad, but not overcome with grief if _his_ family were safe.

His shoulder seemed to jolt with a sharp pain and he looked to it, watching as very slowly, muscles and ligaments began to grow and reach out for the remains of his severed arm. He sat more upright, watching in fascination. Gradually he released a degree of hold on the arm and the muscles grabbed it and began to re-attach. He cried in relief and gratefulness for his vampire body and looked up at the moon. It was almost down and the sun would be rising soon. He'd heard the wolves scuffling, but he hadn't been able to stop to help or figure out if they were the other pack or his.

He felt so tired, exhausted from fighting. He'd felt the shadow try and enter him a few times and he'd fought tooth and nail. He closed his eyes and tried to relax now. He'd figure out a plan after a brief nap. He couldn't move on any further without one.

He slumped down, enjoying the softness of the moss beneath him and curled up to protect the arm. He closed his eyes and exhaled sleepily. Just a short rest and then he'd call Bonnie. She'd know what to do.

It wasn't long before he felt comfortable and warm. The sun must have risen as he felt as though he was being hugged by it. He sighed peacefully and heard a faint humming sound. It sounded like a lullaby. He relaxed, listening. It sounded so familiar somehow.

_Damon what are you listening to?_

He channelled groggily as the music continued and fingers began to stroke through his hair. He hummed happily.

_Love you._

"Hush angel." A soft voice whispered in his ear and he sighed as the singing continued.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19 TH

"No Bonnie, it hitched a ride! How the hell could it do that?!" Damon fumed while arguing down the phone with the witch.

Nathan sighed, despairing. Damon wasn't easy to calm down when he was afraid for those he loved. Despite his best efforts to be strong for Vida, his vibrating stress was just making her more unsettled and Isabella had come and taken her to play with her little one for a while.

_It's not her fault alpha._

Nathan channelled and Damon glared at him from across the room but seemed to register. He squeezed the phone and took a deep breath, closing his eyes as Nathan watched.

"He's gone Bonnie." He said a little calmer. "He ran like a bat out of hell and I can't feel him."

Nathan nodded at him in encouragement. If Stefan couldn't be here to help keep Damon from going over the edge, maybe he could help in some small way.

"Ok." Damon nodded and hung up, looking lost.

"What's the verdict?" Nathan braved.

"She doesn't know. She doesn't know why she wants Stefan and not any of us."

Nathan sighed and clasped his hands, looking to the ground.

"He's been through enough." Damon whispered in grief.

"You both have." Nathan said and Damon dismissed his comment immediately and clammed up again.

"She's going to try a locator spell on him and…take it from there." Damon added.

"What do we do when we find him?"

"If grandma has taken him over, we'll have to vervain the hell out of him and it won't be easy. He's strong."

"Won't that affect you too though?"

"I dunno." Damon shrugged and threw his cell onto the sofa nonchalantly.

"When you and I fought and I broke some of your teeth, he lost some too remember?" Nathan reminded and Damon frowned in thought.

"That'd never happened before."

"You're sure?" Nathan prodded and Damon scowled at him.

"Yes."

"Then…" Nathan frowned and shook his head.

"Probably a spell thing."

"A mating thing." Nathan said.

"I don't know anymore." Damon poured himself a bourbon.

"Maybe your soul is at its most connected when you're in heat or approaching it."

Damon didn't respond, merely drinking his whole glass in one mouthful and staring at the wall.

"Your heat has passed and he won't have another one for a few weeks at least."

Damon chuckled and shook his head at how ridiculous their bodies were now.

"Did anything weird happen at the beginning of the heat or during?" Nathan looked at him and Damon looked at him sharply.

"Are you screwing with me right now?!"

"Other than your mania!" Nathan put his hand out in a peaceful gesture and Damon poured another bourbon angrily. "Other than that. Think. Did anything else happen that was unusual?"

"How the hell should I know what unusual is? You're the damn wolf! I spent most of the heat locked up in a cell, being poked at with weapons and then being beaten to a pulp and fucked by Stefan afterwards!"

Nathan took a deep breath and sat back in his chair. This line of enquiry wasn't helping and it was just making Damon more agitated. Damon threw himself down onto his chair and looked towards Vida's play matt with the missing pink star. He felt his chest grow tight. They were never going to have a normal life. Who were they kidding?

"Wait." Damon said as a memory stirred.

"What?" Nathan leaned forward intently.

"I remember, at first it seemed ok. We drank the tea and all of that crap and we managed…" he blushed not wanting to go into intimate details of their sex life, "…to play out the heat like Stefan wanted but after a few days he lost it. He needed me inside. I couldn't let him suffer so we joined."

Nathan tilted his head. He knew how difficult this must be for him.

"He didn't want it to go like that. He wanted to get through it without…" he paused embarrassed and Nathan nodded to allow him to continue, "So I pulled out as we got stuck and used my fingers until it was over."

"You pulled out of him once you had joined completely?" Nathan gaped and Damon blushed and looked to the ground. "How..? Jesus you must have ripped…" Nathan trailed off as Damon paled at the memory of the pain.

Nathan huffed and crossed his legs in sympathy.

"You shouldn't have been able to. If you'd been anything other than vampire…"

"Yeah I figured."

"But, it concluded the heat for him?"

"Yeah. He slept for days." Damon poured another bourbon and took a sip, staring down into the glass.

"What?" Nathan leaned forward again and Damon looked up at his tone.

"He slept until I couldn't smell the heat anymore. It was over."

"He slept for _days_ after?" Nathan's expression began to give Damon shivers.

"What?" He asked anxiously.

"That's what Stefan was talking about, thinking he'd caused your mania. He thought because he'd slept on and hadn't satisfied you, that you'd gone into mania instead."

"Yeaaaah." Damon said slowly as thought it was a stupid question.

"No." Nathan shook his head and stood up and Damon's eyes widened as he gave him his full attention. "No."

"What you talking about 'no'?"

"I've travelled through a lot of packs and I'm telling you no mate sleeps for days after a heat and leaves the other awake and horny."

"But we're not full wolves, everyone said maybe…" Damon stood up now and Nathan continued to shake his head.

"It can't be just that. I admit, that when I first got here, that explanation made sense a little but I didn't realise he'd been asleep for so long after you'd finished him off."

"So what are you saying?" Damon swallowed.

"You said when I left the other night that Vida was crying and touching Stefan's face. You tried to wake him but it was like he was unconscious."

"Yeah." Damon croaked, his heart racing.

"Grandma wolf by then, must have been attached to him." Nathan surmised and Damon nodded. "His soul, your soul is strongest when you're connected during heat. Doesn't it strike you as odd that during your heat, Stefan should fall asleep so deeply that you are divided, despite your body's' natural magnetism to each other?"

Damon stared at him, beginning to pant and lick his lips. Nathan was onto something.

"And then I'm summoned because you've gone into rut and I came like the wind to be here. She knew somehow that I was staying at the Boarding House – she must be able to watch us! She knew the residual energy from the spell was lurking around there and she knew that if she attacked me there, he'd come back – especially after having had me come out here to remind you that we are family and that…I needed you too."

Damon swallowed.

"I'm such an idiot. I'd never have told him how much I needed contact with you, had I not actually seen you both. I'd have kept my mouth shut and just got on with it, but seeing him again and being able to channel with you both – it just brought back to me how lonely I've been without you and the other mates." Nathan chastised himself.

Damon sat down.

"So she wants him strong but divided from you. She knew you'd be strongest at heat and Stefan's heat goes weird."

"You think she did something to him then?"

"Maybe she tried to get into him or onto him and that's what made him sleep so long. Maybe…" Nathan scratched his head, "…maybe she made a play for both of you. You have one soul right? So maybe she tried to enter both of you and instead it just caused the split."

"Then plan B, was to draw you here to get his attention and try it a different way." Damon mumbled.

"Remind Stefan of his obligation to me, so that she could draw him back to Mystic Falls without you and hitch a proper ride until the pack and everyone else was distracted by the moon and the birth of new cubs."

"It still doesn't explain why she just wants him? Why not me?" Damon looked to him full of emotion.

"Only she knows that alpha." Nathan said sympathetically. "But good news is that he can't live without your blood and she knows that, so she'll either let us find him or return him afterwards."

"After she's done _what_ to him though?" Damon swallowed bile and Nathan sat back down.

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Stefan opened his eyes, squinting at the sun and sat up, checking his arm. It had re-attached completely and he held it and panted in relief for a few minutes. His head was pounding. He stood up, shaking and looked around. He had no idea where he was, how far he'd ran. Was he still on the sacred ground? If he was then the shadow would have faded if it wasn't still attached to him. If he was back on normal ground – what did that mean? She'd made a few attempts to enter him but he managed to shake her off. Each time it had felt as though his head was being stretched, getting bigger and he'd thought he might vomit or burst blood vessels. He'd just kept running and focusing on the smell of the air, the animals scurrying out of his path – real earthbound senses and things and it had subsided each time. No wonder his head hurt now though.

He rubbed his temples and groaned. Water. He needed water.

He tuned in his ears for sounds of a creek and began to follow the sounds. It wasn't far away. He collapsed to his knees and bent down to splash his face with water. The coolness felt good and much welcomed. He drank a few handfuls and rested his hands in the soil, staring down at his reflection. He didn't look good.

He wasn't quite sure what to do. He didn't have any of Damon's bottles and he couldn't go back and risk anyone at the camp. If he drew Damon out here, grandma wolf might hurt Damon like she'd hurt Nathan. He couldn't risk it. He'd just have to get Bonnie to come up with a solution pronto. He nodded at his reflection and paused for a second when he saw movement behind him. He spun around in fear but there was no one. He panted, tuning in his wolf ears and senses for a few minutes but heard only the life of the forest around him.

He turned back to the water again and looked down. He paused, rooted to the spot in shock when he saw a face he hadn't seen in a very long time.

"Flora?" He asked shakily and the lone figure of his long dead wet nurse smiled at him, sitting down beside him in the water view.

He looked beside him on the grass but she wasn't there. He turned back to look into the water and she was there, clear as day.

"Miss Flora?" He asked in disbelief.

Her caramel skin rippled slightly with the flow of the water but her eyes remained fixed on him– full of the love and caring they'd held for him when he'd been a small child. He wanted to reach out and touch her but he knew he'd disturb the water.

"I don't understand…" he trailed off as he felt his heart squeeze.

He'd loved this woman. She had been his world. Their mother had died when he'd been a baby – as Damon had so clearly pointed out when he'd had no humanity, due to contracting Scarlet Fever from him as an infant. She'd died before he was six months old and so a wet nurse had been required. Flora. She'd been his mother. She'd sang to both he and Damon and looked after them until Giuseppe had decided that they were too old to be mollycoddled and she'd been dismissed.

"Why are you here?" He asked and she smiled but didn't seem to be able to answer.

She began to fade and he desperately touched the water, trying to resurrect her but she disappeared into the ripples his fingers caused and he exhaled and sat back grieved.

"What's happening?" He asked the water.

He sat for a while, hoping she'd come back but she didn't. Everything seemed normal again. He lay down on the embankment, feeling tired again and looked up through the leaves to the sky. How long had it been since he'd been able to just lie and look up at the sky? Had Vida even seen the stars? He frowned on that. He wanted her to have everything, see everything. His eyes drifted closed, listening to the brook behind him and he relaxed, when suddenly he heard a loud roar and noise.

He sprang to attention, jumping up and staring straight into the face of an enormous Semi. He blurred out of the way and fell against the concrete side building of a diner.

"Jeez man, you drunk? It's only 12!" A not so un-inebriated passer-by commented at him and cackled a laugh, showing a mouth with hardly any teeth inside.

"What?" He asked shakily, looking around as he realised that he wasn't in the woods anymore.

How the hell had he gotten here? He'd just been in the forest, by the river a minute ago and he'd just closed his eyes for a second…His arm itched and he looked down at it, still healing from being severed so horribly – he had a note in his hand.

"What?" He whispered and unravelled it.

It was his handwriting. Even before he read the words, he knew what they were going to say.

"I own you now, boy. I am in you. Let go or I will eat you."

His heart raced and he almost vomited as he read the note again – definitely his handwriting. It was her. It was grandma. She must have taken him over and moved him out of the forest. He held his chest and rested against the side of the diner, trying to calm down. She'd taken full control and he hadn't even known. Before, he'd felt it happening and he'd been able to shake her off, but just now all he had done was close his eyes for a second and she'd had him.

He rubbed his face, his hands shaking and looked around. Where was he?

"Are you still here?" He asked the air, looking for any trace of the shadow. "Bonnie." He whispered, fumbling in his pocket for his cell.

Amazingly it was still in his pocket and he pulled it out, swallowing when he saw 50 missed calls from Damon. How long had she been in him?! He ignored Damon's number with a heavy heart and dialled Bonnie.

"Stefan, thank god are you ok?" She cried and he swallowed hard.

"I don't know. She got into me Bonnie, completely. I didn't even feel it happening."

"What do you mean?" She asked gravely.

"I…I lay down for a few minutes and woke up in the middle of a highway. I don't even know where I am or how long she was in me, but she left me a note." His hand shook as he held it tight.

"What did it say?" She asked straight to the point.

"That she's in me and I can't stop her. That she'll…eat me if I don't let her in." He swallowed bile and Bonnie fell silent for a few seconds. "Bonnie?"

"Yeah, I'm still here." She sighed in contemplation.

"Bonnie, I'm scared. How can she do this?"

"I don't know. You're not…you're strong and it's not like you're…" she struggled.

"An innocent." He offered and she sighed again. "I'm a ripper and she can get into my body without a fight."

"Wait, if she got inside you, what happened to bring you back?" She asked and he paused as he considered that. "Did something happen?"

"I don't know. One minute I was in the woods and then I was lying on the ground in the middle of the road with a semi coming at me blaring its horns." He described.

"You don't remember falling down onto the road or someone attacking you?"

"No."

"Ok, ok. This means something. She's warning you to stop fighting, so it must mean that she can't take over you indefinitely. Your soul must have pushed her out somehow." She hypothesized.

"What did she mean, she'd eat me?" He paled.

"Scare tactics Stefan. That's what she does. She threatens to make us let her have her way. Leopards can't change their spots."

His stomach clenched in uncertainty. He didn't know why but for some reason he felt as though Grandma's threat had a little more bite than bark.

"Where are you now?"

"I'm not sure, outside a diner."

"You need to get back to Damon, let them know you're safe."

"I can't go back there, what if she jumps into me and gets to the babies?"

"Stefan you need to feed to stay strong and she knows that. Either way she knows you'll have to go back to him. I bet she's counting on it."

"Exactly. I shouldn't give her what she wants." He argued.

"Ok. Then we bring Damon to you." She suggested and he sighed, desperately wanting that but fearing it too. "Nathan believes that she might have made a play for both of you during your heat." She said a little sheepishly.

"What?" He frowned.

"They're thinking that's what caused you to be unconscious for days after your heat receded and sent him into his rut as a result. If she tried to enter you when you were both connected and your soul was one and it didn't work, it could explain a few things."

"But, how?"

"I'm still working on that. But if that was what happened and it separated you two, maybe you were unconscious because she was attaching to your body alone. Maybe Damon's was too strong, too different."

"Because I'm the breeder right?" He grumbled annoyed and she sighed in sympathy.

"Everything she's done has surrounded fertility and new life. You are the one who can carry life so maybe that's why in her attempt she ended up knocking you out because her attempt to enter both of you failed."

"It's just more theories!" He said exasperated.

"I know, but grams isn't communicating and I'm on my own here. I swear we'll figure out what's happening Stefan." She promised and he gave a silent nod. "Now, go into the diner and find out where you are. You both need to feed and connect. Hopefully if you two are together and stronger, she won't be able to get in, she'll just hitch a ride like she did before and we can figure this out."

"Ok." He agreed.

He walked into the bar, dragging his feet behind him as he went.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ok, based on his scent trail, this is where he should be by now if he kept walking in that direction." Ian pointed to the map as Damon looked down and the rest of the pack mumbled in agreement.

"Now if this spirit is still clinging to him then we have to take pre-cautions." Nisha interrupted, handing around small pouches of herbs.

"Herbs? That it?" Damon snorted and Nathan kicked the back of his ankle in warning.

_Don't be an ass alpha._

"I know it doesn't seem like much but it's all we've got and it should protect us." She said confidently.

"Wait, what about Damon? He's not…alive. Will the herbs still work?" Ian asked and Nisha looked to Damon as though she'd forgotten.

"Don't worry about me. I can handle myself and I doubt a bunch of cooking herbs will do anything for me anyways." Damon crossed his arms.

"Ok. So what's the plan?" Nathan asked, leaning down to look at the map in closer detail.

"Well, if there's a chance that the spirit will try to jump into any of the cubs, then we should keep him a safe distance away." Ian said and everyone nodded full of discomfort.

"Any more caves further down this route? Like the rut caves?" Nathan asked and Damon tensed at the mention of his cell.

"Um, yeah. I think there are actually." Nisha sat down, thinking. "I'm sure there are. That might be a good place." She pointed to a location on the map.

"Why?" Damon asked her.

"Stefan said that there was something in the rock that stopped him from being able to smell you, channel to you. If that's true, then it'll keep _you_ safe from the spirit too."

"I don't give a damn about me." He dismissed.

"Yeah, well, no offense Damon, but you're not exactly an omega." Ian pointed out and Damon flared his nostrils.

"He's got a point alpha. If grandma jumps into you, we'll be in trouble. You're too strong and fast. You could kill everyone in the camp, plus Vida before we've even gotten back here." Nathan said solemnly and Damon swallowed bile and uncrossed his arms.

"Right. So, the caves then. You'll need to draw them on the map though Nisha, it's not safe for you to leave Constance yet. She's struggling as it is." John suggested.

"Yes. I can't leave her." She nodded. "Three. We haven't had triplets in the pack for a long time." She gave a small smile.

"Ok, so we find him, Damon – you grab him or incapacitate him if you can…" Nathan began.

"Bet your ass I can."

"And we secure him in the other caves and wait for your witch." Ian said.

"She's on her way already." Damon confirmed.

"Good. So we have a plan." Nathan stood up and they all nodded confidently. "We should grab some traps or something. If she has access to Stefan's abilities, she'll make a run for it or attack us. If we have a trap net or something, it could slow her down."

"And if it's still Stefan in there, he'll run to try and protect us anyway." Damon nodded in agreement.

The others began to go through cupboards, pulling out supplies and Damon and Nathan leaned against the window frame and tried to relax a little. Their plan was good and the whole pack was going to help. This was what a family was.

"Who'd have thought it'd be you that would co-operate to help yourself instead of keep yourself apart like you usually do, huh?" Nathan teased slightly and Damon frowned at him. "It's not like Stefan not to allow himself to count on others. He knows he can't fight her off alone."

"He's not alone." Damon huffed and pulled his cell out of his pocket and demonstrating the caller I.D buzzing on his screen. "He has Bonnie."

Nathan gave a small smile and Damon wandered away from him, outside onto the porch to speak to her.

"Bonnie, did you find him?"

"Yeah. He sounds in bad shape but otherwise he's still himself."

"Thank god." He exhaled and closed his eyes.

"She's made a few attempts at him and the last one he didn't know it had happened until afterwards and that worries me. She's getting stronger as he gets weaker." She said concerned and he clenched his jaw.

"We're going to find him and keep him in the cave till you can get down here. The pack are getting ready to roll right now."

"No, Damon I think first of all it's important that we return his strength if he has any chance of fighting her off again. He's managed to fight her other attempts and if we can keep him fighting and winning, then it'll buy me some time to figure out how to protect him." She advised.

"So…what are you telling me, don't go after him?" He frowned.

"No, he needs you, but he won't risk anyone else. It'll just have to be you. He's staying at Crowside diner off the interstate to the north. It's not far from the camp, but should be a safe enough distance away from the others. Go to him and re-connect. I'll grab my stuff and…" she instructed when Damon froze, speechless.

"Um, think you need to get a better compass there Sabrina." He said in a strange tone.

"Huh?" She said confused.

"Because Stefan's not at the diner. He's here." He advised as Stefan casually walked towards him with a strange smile of satisfaction on his face.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20 TH

"What?! No Damon, it's not him, it's..!" Bonnie cried out and Damon smirked at the figure of Stefan approaching him.

"Gotta go." He said and clicked off as Stefan came to stand in front of him. "Let me guess. Grandma."

"I do have a name you know." Grandma said and Damon swallowed his nerves and tried his best not to channel.

If the pack should know Stefan was standing here right now, they might panic and attack him. After all, there were one day old triplets a few lodges away, plus a few other babies including their own angel.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, staying calm.

"I need you to fix this." Grandma pulled at the torn shirt at his wounded shoulder and Damon paled when he saw how much healing was still needed.

"Fine." He smiled. "Get out of Stefan's body and I'll patch him up right as rein."

"You know I can't do that until you help me do what I need to here."

"And what is that?" Damon whispered conspiratorially, leaning forward to block the view from the lounge so Nathan wouldn't see anything.

"Get rid of Klaus." She said matter of factly.

"Like a broken record!" Damon gave a quick mocking laugh. "And you know what, help yourself. I don't give a damn about him. But, I can promise you this – if you don't get out of my mate's body right now, I'm going to make sure that the only place you'll be going is into a damn bottle to rot!" His eyes tingled and he allowed his fangs to extend in warning, hoping that she might not yet have had a chance to get used to how Stefan's body worked.

Instead of fear, she showed only amusement.

"Well…you'd have to rip him apart to get me out right now lover-boy and somehow I don't think you'd be willing to damage him." She said confidently and Damon bristled as he heard Nathan gasp inside.

Damn it, he must have seen! What to do now?!

"Clearly, you don't know me that well." He growled, smiling and lunged for her, breaking Stefan's neck like a twig and catching him before he hit the ground.

Nathan threw the door open, followed by the rest of the pack holding weapons and staring wide eyed. Damon held a hand up and they panted, watching closely.

_Alpha…_

"I broke his neck. It'll give us half an hour maybe." Damon panted and the others lowered their weapons.

"It was her. She got inside fully?" Nathan asked and Damon nodded.

"Half an hour isn't time to get to the farthest away caves. We'll have to take him to the other ones and move the cubs." Ian said.

"No!" Damon panted, thinking on how far away they might have to go and take his little angel with them. "Bonnie can put some kind of spell around the caves. Keep us in there."

"Us? Alpha, you can't…" Nathan began to argue and Damon lifted Stefan into his arms and turned to face them all.

"If we're right, she tried to get in me already and it didn't work. I'll be fine. We need to figure out how she's managing to take him over and what she wants. If I'm with him, maybe we can be strong enough together to hold her at bay." He advised and everyone mumbled, unsure.

"I understand you need to be with him. We didn't listen to Stefan when you were rutting and he was right." Ian nodded in thought. "But, I can't risk the other cubs while we wait for Bonnie. I'm sorry Damon, I can't."

Damon swallowed and looked to Nathan.

"Stefan would want you to send her away Damon. You know he would. She'll still be with the pack." Nathan said softly.

"She's…mine." He croaked.

"And you're ours. Both of you." Ian said warmly and Damon licked his lips anxiously.

"Damon we don't have time." Nathan raised and Damon nodded, wincing as he looked in the direction of Ian's lodge where Vida was playing right now.

"Do you want me to take the cubs?" Nathan looked to Ian and they began discussing quickly.

"No." Damon said and Nathan looked to him. "I need you here."

_Alpha?_

Nathan frowned.

_You're right. You love him, so only you'll protect him like I will. I need you here._

Nathan gave a quick nod and hinted in the direction of the caves.

"Secure him as best you can. We'll be there as soon as we've moved the cubs." Ian said and Damon blurred off into the woods.

Ian patted Nathan on the shoulder and exhaled.

"You handle him well. I'm glad you're here."

"He's still learning how to trust people. You've no idea how far he's come."

"I can imagine. Just listen though Nate." Ian turned him towards him and squeezed his shoulders. "Remember that they're immortal and you're not. They are mates. You're not."

"What are you saying?" Nathan defended in surprise.

"I'm just saying that everywhere they go, problems follow. We'll do everything we can to help with this, but I can't risk everyone's lives for two pack members. The pack comes first. If this spirit becomes too dangerous, we'll have to let them go to the other mates and find a solution."

Nathan frowned and clenched his jaw.

"Your future mate is out there somewhere and you'll find them, but not if you're dead. Ok, buddy?" Ian grimaced in sympathy.

He knew how sensitive a topic this was. Ian gave a stiff nod and moved away from him back into the house to grab some supplies. He knew Ian was speaking the truth. Damon and Stefan were his kin but he was always going to be the third wheel. He needed his own life, purpose and mate. If things got too dangerous here…he might have to think about himself.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Damon lay Stefan down on the ground, fussing as he tried to re-assemble the camping bed that he'd broken when he'd last fought his way out of this cave. He spread the material out on the ground to make it as comfortable as he could and sat back, looking for chains. He didn't want to have chain him.

He exhaled and clenched his jaw. He had too. He didn't know who would wake up – grandma or Stefan. He had to be careful. He reached over and lifted the broken chains that had held him captive – bending them into shape so that they would work once again, before lifting Stefan carefully and placing him down on the bed and securing him to the wall with both wrists held above his head. He stepped back and cupped Stefan's face anxiously.

"Wake up little blood machine." He whispered. "I need you."

He felt a strange pull inside and turned his head towards the exit of the cave. Stefan had said to the others that he couldn't feel Damon's channelling down here, when he'd been incarcerated. That gave him some comfort now, knowing that Stefan hadn't just ignored his pleas for them to be together, despite what the wolves were saying.

He stroked some hair from Stefan's forehead and felt the pull again. He stood up, following it and ascended to the entrance. Nathan was there, looking in sheepishly.

"Did you channel to me?" Damon asked and Nathan blinked at him as though he was being stupid. "I felt a pull but didn't hear you."

"Really?" Nathan asked in surprise and they both ran their fingers across some of the rock, sniffing it.

"Well, that's…interesting." Damon commented.

"I brought you some blankets and some of your bottles. Figured you wouldn't want to feed if it isn't him." Nathan blushed and Damon accepted the items gratefully and gave a nod of thanks.

"What do you want me to do?" Nathan ventured.

"I'm not sure. If I couldn't hear you channel, then hopefully it means she can't jump into you."

"She had her chance before." He reminded and Damon nodded. "She didn't want me."

"Yeah, well, it's time to find out what she does want." Damon sighed.

"What's your plan?"

"See how far I can push her, or figure out how to help her get what she wants without hurting Stefan."

"Help her?" Nathan squinted at him in confusion.

Damon exhaled through his nose and shrugged.

"If it gets her out of Stefan and out of our lives…"

"But Damon, she's evil. She tried to kill us all – she killed our offspring!" Nathan became emotional and Damon nodded and sighed again. "We have to destroy her. That's what Stefan would want."

"Well, Stefan's not here." He said irritated. "I am and if it's the only way to save Stefan, then I'll happily stick Klaus's ass on a pole and lay him over the fire for her. Hell, I even serve him up."

Nathan took a step back and rubbed his face. Damon watched him.

"Question is, are you with me on this?"

Nathan ran his hands through his hair as he tried to think.

"Stefan wouldn't want us to help her Damon."

"Stefan won't want shit if he's dead!" Damon spat, swallowing bile at the thought of Stefan dying again. "Or worse, if he's squashed into the back of his brain somewhere where he can see us and hear us, but not do anything."

Damon almost choked on the last sentence and Nathan frowned and reached for him comfortingly. Damon shrugged him off and turned away for a few seconds to contain his emotion.

_Trust me, death is a lot better for him than the other option._

"You speak from experience?" Nathan asked gently and Damon gave no response, other than to crack his neck.

Damon had never really talked to anyone before about how terrifying it had been to be sealed off from his body but conscious. Not only had it happened when Vida was being born and he was fading, when Klaus had first came back, trying to force Stefan to turn his humanity off and turned Damon into a blood bag for him, he'd been locked away in his brain helpless. It had plagued his nightmares since then, even though it had only been for a short time thanks to Elena pleading. He didn't know if that's what was happening to Stefan when grandma took over, but he couldn't ponder on it because if that's what was happening to his mate, he'd crack.

"Ok. I'm in." Nathan said confidently. "Whatever it takes."

Damon studied him for a minute and then nodded again.

"He'll be awake any minute." Damon mused.

"Go. I'll wait for Bonnie."

Damon nodded again and gave a crooked smile of thanks, before turning around and walking back into the cave. Stefan was still unconscious. He lay the extra blankets on the floor and lifted Stefan's body, dragging some underneath him to make him more comfortable. No doubt Nathan had planned for their need to join. He flushed, thinking on that. Joining had proven to be the quickest way to re-connect them before. Would grandma wolf force him to join with her?

No. That wasn't going to happen. No way in hell.

Stefan coughed and Damon stroked his face, kneeling over him intimately. Stefan turned his head, cracking it and groaning and opened his eyes.

"Stefan? That you?" Damon whispered anxiously and Stefan gave a small nod and squeezed his eyes closed in discomfort.

Damon exhaled and cupped his face.

"Where am I?" Stefan croaked.

"In the rutting cave." Damon answered, still stroking his face comfortingly.

"What?" Stefan squinted at him, disorientated and then he realised, his eyes widening. "What?!" He tried to sit up but felt his wrists secured above his head.

He panted, pulling at them in fear.

"It's ok, it's ok." Damon tried to calm him.

"How did I get here?"

Damon paled and licked his lips, afraid to scare him. Stefan huffed and squeezed his eyes closed again in pain.

"She got in again." He whispered and Damon sat back to give him some breathing space.

Stefan panted for a few seconds before opening his eyes again.

"Did Bonnie get her out?" He asked and Damon shook his head. "Was I in danger or something? Attacked?"

"No. What are you talking about?" Damon frowned.

Stefan frowned, trying to think. He didn't recall anything again. How had she been kicked out of him this time if it hadn't been his conscious doing?

"Last time, I woke up standing right in front of a semi on the road." Stefan said and Damon tensed immediately. "Something must have kicked her out."

"It was me. I broke your neck."

Stefan looked up at him and Damon avoided his eyes.

"Did she hurt anyone?"

"I don't know. No one from the pack anyway. She turned up here, just as we were all grouping to go find you." Damon grimaced.

"Hey." Stefan whispered so he'd look at him. "You did what you had to. I know that."

The relief on Damon's face, warmed Stefan a little and he began to rationalise what they should do next.

"She came here for you." Stefan guessed and Damon nodded, indicating to his still healing shoulder.

He winced in remembrance and deflated a little.

"Something I'm going to fix right now." Damon said lovingly and moved to bite into his wrist, when Stefan shook his head.

"No. Leave it. In fact, maybe you should…" Stefan paled, thinking on his own suggestion, "…tear it off again."

"What?!" Damon gasped, horrified.

"It'll slow me down - _her_ down. We both know what my body can do Damon. If I can't…if I don't have proper use of my…"

Damon stood up in shock and Stefan paused, studying his face.

"Don't. Don't ever say anything like that to me again." Damon could barely speak and Stefan felt his stomach tighten.

Damon turned away from him to breathe for a few minutes, arranging the other blankets into another bed for himself.

"I don't know what else to do." Stefan croaked, looking up at the ceiling. "I'm too dangerous."

"Oh get over yourself Stefan!" Damon huffed. "I'm a big bad vampire too you know and those wolves out there aren't puppies. We're part of them now and they want to help. You need to think about our pack. "

Stefan huffed in amazement at him. Damon was talking about the rest of the pack? Since when did he care?

"Remember when Elena was going all martyr on us when Elijah found her?" Damon mused, not looking at him directly. "You were so pissed. You saw how dangerous it was for everyone, even when she couldn't."

Damon paused and turned to him pointedly.

"So why can't you see it now?"

Stefan blinked away a few tears and clenched his jaw.

"These aren't tight enough." He croaked instead of responding to Damon's question, pulling at the chains.

"And you're avoiding the situation."

"What do you want me to do?" He asked irritated. "I have no control here! No power. If she gets in me again, how long before she's blurred back up to the camp and sucked those cubs dry?"

"She doesn't want them Stefan, she wants you!" Damon spat. "She could have just gone to Constance when she waltzed in earlier, but she didn't bat an eyelid at all of the crying and stench of diapers coming from that lodge a door away. No, instead she wanted me to fix _you_."

"Why?" Stefan whispered, fear beginning to overcome his senses and Damon softened immediately and moved over to him, bringing their noses together and rubbing them affectionately.

"She wants Klaus and you're one of the only people he trusts." Damon whispered. "I don't know what her plan is, that's what we need to find out."

Stefan exhaled in pain and Damon pulled back, his eyes warm and large with sympathy.

"Bonnie is going to be here any minute and she'll know something. Somehow, we're getting her out of you and we'll keep her out, even if that means bringing Klaus to _her_."

"What do you mean?" Stefan searched his eyes.

"If it's you or Klaus, you know who I'm going to choose, little blood machine. He's lived a thousand years and he does nothing but cause us pain and death. Let him fight his own battles for a change. We shouldn't have to. Let her deal with him and leave us in peace."

Stefan searched his eyes worriedly and Damon leaned down and placed some small soft kisses on his lips, before pulling back.

"Damon, if she could have gotten to him on her own, then she would have already." Stefan said softly. "She needs a body, something earthbound."

"We don't know that. If we can cram her into a bottle like a genie…"

"Damon…" Stefan sighed, slightly frustrated when he felt a cramp seize him.

He grunted and winced in pain. Damon sat up more alert and cupped his face worriedly.

"Stefan?"

"Uhhh!" Stefan cried in pain and pulled at the chains, trying to contort.

"Stefan what's happening? Is this..?" Damon cried urgently.

"No! No, leave me alone!" Stefan shouted in terror and Damon panicked, realising he was losing him again.

"No, no, no! Stefan you have to fight till Bonnie gets here. Fight it!" Damon held him, shaking him.

"Damon! I can't, she's too…" Stefan cried out in pain and panted, looking at him in defeat already and Damon began to remove his jeans hurriedly.

_No, mate, mine, part of me…_

Damon pulled Stefan jeans off too and hurriedly positioned himself between his legs. Never had there been a more important time to have an erection and of course, it eluded him. He pumped himself determined as Stefan continued to twist and grunt.

"Come on, come on!" He shouted at his lack of ability to harden and Stefan locked eyes with him.

"Bloodwave!" He cried out and Damon instantly climbed on top of him, offering his neck.

Stefan bit down and began to feed, the euphoria of the blood, temporarily relieving the pain of grandma's attempts. Damon in turn dropped his face into Stefan's shoulder and bit there, drinking with determination until their limbs were tingling and Damon's erection stood up hungrily.

Stefan pulled him into his pelvis, wrapping his legs around Damon's bottom as he let the blood wave rob him of his sanity. Damon entered him and pulled up from his shoulder as Stefan released his neck. They kissed and moved together, sliding their bodies to join repeatedly and Stefan smiled in relief and sighed in pleasure.

_Mine, not going anywhere, staying with me…_

Damon channelled and Stefan ached to be able to hold him properly, but his wrists were better secured to the wall than he'd realised and he couldn't budge. He relaxed instead and became vocal in how good their joining felt. Damon raised himself up so he could kiss and scent around Stefan's face while thrusting. This was desperate sex, desperate and possessive but it still felt incredible.

Stefan climaxed loudly, his cries bouncing off of the walls of the cave and echoing all around them and Damon laughed briefly before he climaxed too, falling on top of him and gasping for air as Stefan's milking began. They writhed against each other as the minutes ticked past and their bodies drew on each other, uniting them both in the process.

After ten minutes of lying still and resting, Damon began to scent Stefan's neck and face again, continually checking his eyes and Stefan relaxed into it, enjoying the attention. As he lay back, letting Damon take care of him, he began to ponder on why his experiences of this possession differed. Her attempt just a short time ago had been painful. It had felt as though she was punching her way into his body, into his brain, but then she'd seemingly managed to jump right into him with no problems and knowledge from him twice that they knew of. What was the difference? If only he knew, then they could manage to evade her attempt by joining each time. The question still remained – how, on sacred land, was she managing still to have a hold on his body?

Damon hummed, dipping his face in at Stefan's shoulder, pushing aside the torn fabric of his shirt with his face and licking over the now healing wound of his arm. Stefan hummed in thanks and Damon cleaned it until the ugly scarring began to fade entirely.

_Love_

_Love, unbearable need Stefan._

Stefan nudged Damon's face in question and Damon rubbed their noses together exhaling.

"You're the best of me. When you're not here, I don't trust myself." Damon admitted.

Stefan didn't know how to respond.

"I trust in you, my black haired one." He whispered and Damon buried his face in at Stefan's neck, holding him tight.

They were still joined, but they couldn't stay this way forever. Neither of them wanted to separate just in case.

_I won't leave your body until Bonnie figures this out._

_How? She needs to be here._

Damon raised his head and looked down at him.

"Then she takes us as we are. It won't be the first time she's seen us butt naked and rolling around having sex." Damon pointed out and Stefan frowned, feeling embarrassed.

Damon reached behind him and pulled a blanket over them both, covering their bodies and building as much of a nest as he could. Stefan held tight every time he moved, fearing he'd slip out of him, but they were fine. Damon's improved size made it easier for them to stay that way even while asleep.

"There." Damon gave him a reassuring smile and kissed him softly again, stroking his face tenderly.

He blinked when he felt that familiar pull from Nathan again and looked towards the cave stairs, groaning.

"What?" Stefan asked.

"Nathan." Damon said and focussed on pulling on the other end of the connection.

He waited for a response and exhaled annoyed. He was going to have to call out to his wolfie ears.

"Nathan! Come down!" He shouted and Stefan flinched at how loud his shouts were in the small cave.

Damon returned to scenting him and lying kisses on his mouth to soothe him again and finally they heard steps approaching – more than one set.

Finally, Bonnie was here.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21 TH

Stefan tensed, full of discomfort at the thought of having to see anyone while they were linked and vulnerable like this, but he knew there was no other way. He exhaled and Damon rubbed their noses together encouragingly.

Nathan entered first and gaped in realisation, halting and averting his eyes.

"It's ok." Damon said in response and placed a small peck on Stefan's mouth. "She tried again. This is the only way to stop her."

Nathan blushed and gave a short nod, before looking behind and giving Bonnie a look of warning. Bonnie nodded and they continued into the small space. Bonnie took a deep breath and cleared her throat and Nathan lifted one of the extra blankets on the floor that Damon had been unable to reach and carefully placed it around the makeshift nest to make them feel more secure, before backing away.

"Bonnie." Stefan said and Damon moved slightly to the side so that he could lean up on his elbow and give Stefan some space.

Stefan tensed and looked to him as his manhood slid out a little, but Damon channelled assurance to him and he tried to relax again.

_I'm staying in. It's ok._

"Hey." Bonnie knelt before them sympathetically. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I want this to be over." Stefan said full of emotion.

"What happened? Think carefully. What's the last thing you remember?" She asked.

He took a few breaths as he tried to think.

"I was…in a diner. I…I was trying to do something, but I can't remember what." He said frustrated as his head began to hurt again.

Damon dipped his face into Stefan's neck and began to scent him softly to soothe it and Stefan closed his eyes.

"Do you remember speaking to me on the phone?" She asked and he thought for a minute, enjoying Damon's nose rubbing into his neck, before nodding. "And then?" She prompted.

"Being here." He swallowed.

"He just…she just came walking into camp." Nathan added and Bonnie sat back on her heels and exhaled, frowning.

"My arm." Stefan flexed it and Damon kept his face in at his neck. "It was severed in the fight with the wolves. I got it to re-attach but I need Damon's blood to heal now. She must have known that and came back for him."

"Severed?!" Nathan whispered horrified and looked to the arm, gulping.

Stefan nodded at him.

"Vampire." Stefan reminded and Nathan winced and held his own arm in sympathy.

"What happened between the diner and here to ensure she had a foothold on him again?" Bonnie thought out loud. "What brought you back?" She asked and Stefan nuzzled the side of Damon's head affectionately.

"Damon put her down so we could buy some time till you got here." Nathan said when Stefan didn't answer, stepping closer to them in concern.

Damon placed a kiss in at Stefan's neck, where he'd broken the vertebrae and Stefan channelled reassurance again.

"Pain, or danger." Bonnie hypothesized. "Maybe that's enough to kick her out."

"Last time I came to, I was standing in front of a semi on the road. A few seconds later and I would have been road kill." Stefan contemplated. "I thought she'd done it on purpose to scare me. To show me she could do whatever she wanted, but maybe she just didn't expect the truck."

Everyone fell silent as they thought on that. Damon lifted his head and frowned.

_What are you thinking alpha?_

Nathan crossed his arms and Damon looked to him.

"If she has been watching us, for how long?" Damon asked Bonnie. "On the other side do they always have the ability to?"

"From what I can tell, that's how they spend most of their time." Bonnie confirmed and Damon chewed his lip.

_What?_

Stefan channelled under him.

"Seeing and actually being part of life are totally different things." Damon commented and Stefan raised his eyebrows. "Just because she's watched the world change, doesn't mean she understands it."

Nathan gave a short nod and sat down cross legged, picking up on Damon's direction.

"So, the forest she knows. That wouldn't have changed much, but coming out onto a road and seeing a semi – she might not have known what to do." Nathan offered.

"Were the horns blazing?" Bonnie asked Stefan and he nodded, his eyes widening.

"Suddenly being in front of a huge truck in a living body that can be damaged, while there's sound blaring all around you would be terrifying." Nathan nodded.

"That must have been it." Stefan agreed. "So, fear of death or injury kicks her out?"

"She didn't know I was going to break your neck though." Damon pointed out.

"Maybe the severity of the action was enough." Bonnie ruminated.

"Good to know." Stefan exhaled. "If she gets in again, just keep breaking my neck."

"Stefan…" Nathan groaned in argument and Damon huffed annoyed.

_Promise me, you'll do it until we figure this out._

Stefan drew Damon a commanding look.

"We don't have to if we stay joined." Damon answered verbally.

_I'm not going to lie here like this forever Damon._

Bonnie stood up to stretch her legs.

"Bon bon, tell me you've brought something useful with you." Damon asked while he tried to stare Stefan out. "Something to keep her out or keep us in here."

"There are a few different things we could try." She said, setting out her grimoire from her backpack.

"Great." Nathan said enthusiastically.

"But, putting a force-field around someone's mind is a different story." She pointed out and Damon huffed impatiently. "Stefan, I don't know if it'll work."

"All we can do is try." Stefan nodded appreciatively.

"Problem is, I need you to separate." She said gravely and Damon growled at the back of his throat.

_Alpha._

Nathan warned and Stefan rocked his pelvis to quieten him. Damon looked down at his face worriedly.

_If she jumps into me…you know what to do._

"Will the spell work if I'm unconscious?" Stefan asked, licking his lips quickly as Damon's body trembled with anxiety.

"Yeah, I think so." She said.

"You _think_ so?!" Damon spat and Stefan made a shushing noise at him and gyrated again.

Damon closed his eyes and blushed a little. Nathan turned his head as he smirked at Damon being settled like an infant.

"Ok." Stefan said resolutely. "What will you do?"

"I will try and create a field around your whole body. It'll mean that anything external, won't be able to get inside."

"Anything?" Damon asked anxiously and Bonnie cleared her throat embarrassed.

"Anything non-corporeal or spirit." She clarified and Damon relaxed. "If it works then she should be blocked."

"If she's blocked from getting into me, will she be able to get into anyone else?" Stefan asked, swallowing.

"I don't even understand how she managed to get into you Stefan. It shouldn't have been possible." She said.

"But she did." Nathan said, to stop Damon from losing his head again. "So will the rest of us be in danger?"

"I don't know. I see the pack have moved the last of the babies out."

"Yeah." Nathan nodded and Stefan felt his chest tighten.

Damon sighed and rubbed their noses together.

_She's safe with the pack little blood machine._

Stefan grew tight, trying not to panic but nodded.

"She's with Isabella Stefan." Nathan consoled.

"If she'd been able to get into me, she'd have done it already." Damon said, stroking Stefan's hair away from his ear tenderly.

"Me too." Nathan crossed his arms again.

"We don't know that." Bonnie countered.

"Yeah, we do." Nathan spoke for he and Damon. "I feel it in my bones."

Bonnie shook her head and sighed.

"Well I hope your bones are right then."

"What about you? If she jumped into you…" Nathan began and Bonnie shook her head confidently.

"No. Witches are the hardest to possess. She'd have to be earthbound, alive and have an enormous amount of black magic to do that to me."

"Ok then." Stefan nodded. "Let's do this."

They separated carefully, Damon sitting back and re-dressing himself as Bonnie and Nathan turned away to give Damon the chance to dress Stefan's lower half again. When they were both clothed, Bonnie began.

Everyone was nervous and on alert for an attack but it didn't happen. Bonnie touched Stefan's head to do the spell and chanted, focussed.

Damon watched nervously, constantly checking the walls for any sign of the shadow. Nathan squeezed his shoulders from behind and uncharacteristically, Damon allowed the comfort.

"Done." Bonnie announced and everyone looked at Stefan in query.

Stefan looked from one to the other and then sat up, pulling at the chains.

Damon took a step towards him when Stefan shook his head.

"No. Leave me chained for now. Just in case." He advised and Damon nodded.

"Now what?" Nathan looked to Bonnie.

"Now we wait and see what happens." She answered.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They waited. Damon refused to leave Stefan alone for a second, despite needing some proper rest. Bonnie had set up camp at Nisha's. The two became firm friends very quickly as they shared their knowledge of herbs and natural remedies. Nathan guarded the outside of the cave, just in case.

As the evening came, Nathan pulled on their connection again and waited. He needed to sleep, but he felt he had to alert Damon to the fact that they'd be on their own. Damon climbed the stairs out of the cave slowly, tiredly and rubbed his face when he exited.

"Hey. You look tired." Nathan said, squeezing his shoulder and Damon nodded. "Any change?"

"No. He's still Stefan."

"Maybe it's worked then." Nathan offered but Damon frowned, afraid to get his hopes up.

"I'm bunking down here tonight with him. Get some sleep and check on my angel." Damon said pointedly.

"Maybe Ian could come down so you can go be with her and rest."

"No." Damon shook his head immediately.

"He'll be ok."

Damon huffed and looked up at the sky as the stars began to emerge from behind the thick fog of cloud beginning to move with the air.

"If she gets in, he'll be counting on me to know the difference." He mumbled and Nathan searched his face.

"The difference?"

"If it's him or not." Damon added to clarify.

Nathan thought of that for a moment and gave a small nod.

_How is he handling this?_

Nathan channelled, all too aware of Stefan's vampire hearing.

_He's Stefan._

Damon channelled and looked towards the cave.

Stefan lay listening and waiting for the rest of their conversation to continue before he realised they must be channeling. Deliberate. He sighed and sank back into the blanket underneath him. He felt ridiculous laying here, chained like an animal, being looked after, guarded…

He felt like a dog or something down here. He pulled on the chains, trying to change their angle on his wrists – which were red and swollen. He wanted Damon to soothe them with his mouth but he wasn't going to allow it. He'd become so weak, so willing to allow himself to be vulnerable lately. How had that happened? Perhaps all the years of having to keep his guard up around Damon, all of that sense of being alert and strong, disappeared with the love that had blossomed between them and this had caused him to feel so naked now. How did he reclaim some of his outer defences again? How did he become Stefan again and not just mated, partner, lover, father?

He closed his eyes and saw a shadow move across his eyelids. He opened them and looked around in fear. Was she back? He pulled at the chains until he could sit up partially, gaping when he saw a figure.

It couldn't be though.

"Father?" He whispered, his eyes wide as saucers as he studied the figure of his late father, who was studying him with just as much curiosity and fear.

"Damon!" He cried out. "Damon!" He shouted louder when there was no immediate movement back into the cave.

Damon came barrelling down the stairs and into the room looking fearful and Stefan could barely look at him in acknowledgement.

"Do you see him?" Stefan croaked, still looking at Giuseppe.

"What are you talking about? Who?" Damon looked around angrily but saw no intruder.

"How can you not see him?" Stefan frowned and held his breath as Giuseppe moved, walking around Damon and inspecting him. "What are you doing here?"

_Stefan what are you seeing?_

Stefan gave a half-hearted shake of his head and didn't answer.

_Stefan?_

Giuseppe reached a hand out to touch Damon's shoulder and Stefan pulled at the chains.

"Don't touch him!" He growled and Damon moved to him, a look of real fear crossing his features.

"Stefan, look at me. There's no one here." Damon shook him a little.

Giuseppe stared Stefan out and looked to Damon again with a look of hatred and revulsion. Stefan pulled at the chains, desperate to hold Damon to him. He didn't know why but he felt it in his bones that Giuseppe could hurt Damon somehow. Giuseppe gave a wicked smile and pulled what looked like a stake out from behind his back. Where had that come from?

"Father…father stop!" Stefan shouted and Damon tried to hold his face between his hands as Nathan came down the stairs looking concerned. "Get away from him!"

"Stefan..?" Nathan whispered and Giuseppe lunged forward and stuck the stake into Damon's back.

Stefan froze in terror and Damon gasped, his eyes widening.

_Alpha?_

Nathan rushed to Damon as Stefan shouted out and pulled at the wall. Damon panted and held his chest, feeling a strange cold sensation enter his heart. It was so unpleasant, he felt off balance and faint. He sat back on his heels to recover and fell to the side into Nathan.

_Alpha! Pain?_

Damon grunted and closed his eyes as the cold sensation began to fade gradually. It almost felt as though he'd had ice inside his ribs for a second. He gathered his breath and Nathan calmed Stefan down, who was bleeding from trying to become free.

"He's ok, Stefan. It's ok." Nathan cooed and Damon opened his eyes again and sat more upright.

_Damon?_

"I'm ok." Damon whispered and rubbed at his chest, wincing.

"He staked you." Stefan said pained.

"Who?" Nathan asked.

"Father. He was here." Stefan said a little calmer as he realised the figure had vanished amidst the commotion.

Damon frowned at him and pulled on their connection. Stefan relaxed and opened up his memory to him and Damon stood up on his feet and looked around, feeling alarmed.

"How could your father have been here?" Nathan asked as Damon sniffed around the room and held his chest a few more times.

"He was a spirit. I know it."

"But this is…"

"Sacred land, yeah I've heard that before!" Stefan snapped and Nathan closed his mouth. "Clearly it doesn't fucking matter."

Damon looked to him in surprise at his hostility and Nathan stood up again, feeling a little awkward.

"Did he try to get in you?" Damon asked gently, trying to reduce the sudden tension in the room.

Stefan shook his head.

"Bonnie's spell?" Nathan asked Damon and Damon chewed his lip. "Maybe she should put a barrier around the cave too, if they can still get near him."

"Yeah, why not! Just let her hang a $5 sign for show and tell on the cave while she's at it! Kids would love to see a spirit infested circus freak!" Stefan said angrily and Nathan paled and looked to Damon, channeling embarrassment and hurt.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" Damon squinted.

"I'm tired." Stefan grunted and looked away from them both.

"No it's more than that little blood machine." Damon argued and Stefan's eyes tingled in anger and warning.

"I'm gonna get some rest. I'll tell Bonnie what happened and hopefully she'll know what to do in the morning." Nathan offered.

Damon gave him a nod and a small, albeit confused smile in return, while Stefan exhaled loudly and ignored them both. Nathan looked to Stefan again for a few seconds, deliberating saying goodnight before deciding to leave him be. He left and headed back to the camp with a heavy heart and a tightness in his chest.

Damon grabbed his blankets and lay them down next to Stefan, watching him as he did so.

"He stabbed you and you felt it." Stefan mumbled after a few minutes of Damon pottering around him.

Damon exhaled and lay down on his back looking up at the ceiling.

"He's dead Stefan. Long dead and gone. He can't hurt me."

"Sure looked like he got your attention." Stefan snorted and Damon frowned in anxiety. "You felt it. Your whole body shuddered. If he can hurt you with an imaginary stake…"

"He can't kill me. At best I was surprised ok? It was a cold feeling, that's all." Damon turned to him. "It'll take more than that to bring me down."

"The fact that he could even do that is what we should be worrying about. Grandma broke Nathan's arms and legs Damon and that was before she was strong enough to latch onto me."

They lay in silence for a while, unsure what to say to each other.

"We can't stay in here forever." Stefan mumbled. "Sooner or later we have to have a plan."

"We do. Grab her, cork her in a bottle and bury her."

"This isn't a fairy tale."

Damon fell silent, picking at the oose from his blanket, while Stefan contemplated it all in his mind.

"I think…" Stefan began when he paused and frowned.

Damon turned onto his side to look at him and put his arm around Stefan's waist gently. Stefan took in a deep breath and exhaled.

"I think, we need to ask her what she wants."

Damon sat up and looked down at him intensely.

"Same thing she did before – to kill Klaus." Damon said bluntly and Stefan nodded slowly.

"But, how? How does she think this will play out? How does she plan to use _me_ to do that?"

Damon shrugged and huffed. He hadn't given her the chance to tell him that before he'd broken Stefan's neck. His priority in that moment had been to put her down so the wolves wouldn't panic and potentially injure Stefan further.

"It's the only way to know what's happening. She might know why I'm seeing things." Stefan mumbled, clearly thinking out loud.

"What do you mean?" Damon frowned.

"Father, he isn't the only other spirit I've seen."

"Who?" Damon leaned closer in query.

"Miss Flora." Stefan looked up at him, studying his expression.

"Mammy?" Damon whispered in disbelief.

Stefan nodded.

"What…did she…?" Damon's mind raced and Stefan shrugged as best he could.

"She didn't speak, she was just with me and then she disappeared."

"When?"

"When I stopped to rest at a lake, just before…" Stefan paused and his face became blank as he thought it over.

"What? Little blood machine?" Damon prompted and cupped his cheek. "Just before…?"

"Just before Grandma jumped into me and took me over without a fight."


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22 TH

Bonnie rubbed her eyes as she looked through her grimoire. She'd barely had any sleep. She felt her head grow heavy and rested her head in her hands for a second when she jolted awake at the sound of Nathan entering. She cleared her throat and gave a yawn discretely, looking over at him as he entered.

"Everything ok?" She asked, noticing his solemn expression.

"I don't know." He said full of discomfort and she patted the seat beside her for her.

He walked around the back of the sofa and took a seat, kicking his shoes off.

"Did something happen?" She enquired.

"Their…I mean, Stefan's dad…"

"It's ok. I know they are brothers." She patted his knee and he regarded her in surprise. "I was the one who brought Stefan back to life by splitting Damon's soul. That spell only works with blood relations."

His eyes widened as he took in just how much power she really must have to be able to do a spell like that on top of everything else she had done. She nodded at him in encouragement to continue and he ran his hands through his hair.

"Damon and I were talking outside the cave when Stefan started calling for him. When we got down there, Stefan was shouting about their father being there in spirit form. Damon tried to calm him down, when he got the wind knocked out of him. I didn't see what caused it, just Damon falling forward, but Stefan was hysterical." He paused, remembering the scene grimly. "Damon's fine but Stefan said at the point Damon felt winded, their father had staked Damon from behind."

Bonnie's heart sped up as she listened, taking it all in. Nothing seemed to make sense. They were currently on ground that was supposed to be spirit free and yet spirits seemed to be reaching out and grabbing Stefan somehow. How? How? She sat forward and clasped her hands around her mouth as she tried to think. Nothing in her book was helping. Spirits shouldn't be able to possess a vampire in this manner, not if the possessor is in spirit form already. She'd heard of powerful witches being able to put themselves inside other people but that was it. Despite all of the horror movie genre variety of tales, she knew that a soul in its own body was extremely difficult to suppress and take over.

The second she realised what was going on, she was on her feet with a gasp, knocking over her grimoire from the coffee table. Nathan jumped up in fear and touched her back in concern.

"Of course. I'm an idiot!" She said frustrated.

"Of all things Bonnie, you're certainly not that." Nathan said confidently and she turned to look at him, still reeling. "What is it?"

"Stefan, his soul isn't all his own."

"Huh?"

"I split Damon's soul to bring part of Stefan back. The fact that they were mated also helped secure some of his own soul into the mix but Stefan is technically a Halfling. He lives with half of a mixed soul so it's not fully rooted inside of his body." She explained.

"Wait, so…ok they share a soul." Nathan shook his head a little confused. "But not all of what is in Stefan's body is Stefan?"

"Yes, no. It's hard to explain. Bonnie began to pace, pulling at the sleeves of her cardigan as she thought on it all. "A soul has two components that we know of – the higher and the lower self."

"Ooook." Nathan squinted, confused still.

"The higher self is attached to the lower self but remains kind of…in heaven or in another kind of dimension, right?"

Nathan nodded but she could see he was still lost.

"You know when people say that they remember the fact that they've lived before – that they've been reincarnated?"

He nodded and sat back down, chewing his lips.

"Well, when we cross over, we fully reconnect with our higher self. The higher self never really comes down to earth with us, so that all of the knowledge we've gained from our lives doesn't follow us and affect our decisions down here. The lower self, returns to earth to have a new life and then re-joins after death with the higher, to consolidate all the things the soul has learned and experienced."

"So when Stefan died, his lower self went up to join with his higher self?"

"Exactly, but his soul didn't return to reincarnate. I used magic to rip him back down and put him back into his body using Damon's life force to do it. Damon's life force is acting like glue to keep him here, but it's not a natural state for him so he's not rooted inside of his own body properly."

"Why?"

"Because his body is a foreign vessel to his soul now. He should have left it behind and began a new life."

Nathan exhaled and rubbed his eyes and she paused.

"So what does all of this mean?" He looked up at her wearily.

"It means that spirits have access to him, to his body, because he's not fully in ownership of it and my act of pulling him apart from his higher self has left a passage way for other spirits to travel. There's space inside of him where his own life force should be and grandma and other spirits are using that space to climb inside of him." She said and Nathan felt all of the hairs on his skin rise in horror.

Bonnie gave a short chuckle of delirium.

"Don't you see? None of the spirits are external. That's why the fact that this land is sacred isn't helping us or preventing them. That's why my spell didn't work. They are _already_ inside of him. Grandma has just carved a bigger hole to nest in, while she tries to push his soul to the back of his mind. She's the strongest spirit because she has help from the other side still."

"If she's so strong, then why are any other spirits getting to Stefan at all?"

"Are they? Or is he just seeing them?"

"I…he just said he could see his father, not that he was feeling as though he could get in." Nathan recalled. "But then, how could their dad hurt Damon?"

"They must be getting stronger somehow." Bonnie chewed her lip in contemplation.

Nathan stood up again, worriedly.

"How do we get them out Bonnie?" He beseeched.

"Oh god." She whispered as she recalled the note that Grandma had left Stefan – _I will eat you._

"Bonnie?" Nathan bristled.

"She's eating his soul to get more room. That's what making the others stronger. The less of Stefan there is, the more influence they can have." She swallowed, nauseated at the thought.

"But…you can't kill a soul right?! A soul is immortal. He'll be ok just pushed somewhere else? Back to his higher self? Right?" Nathan prompted her as she paled.

She looked at him sadly and he felt sick.

"There are more truths and horrors in death than anything in life Nathan. Ignorance is bliss."

"We have to get her out now!" He cried out, rousing Nisha from her bedroom.

Nisha tied her robe around her and took in the scene before her.

"What's happening?" She asked Bonnie.

"Stefan's soul is dying!" Nathan exclaimed and hurriedly began to put his shoes on again.

"What?!" Nisha cried out and Bonnie picked up her grimoire calmly and slid her shoes on too. "Bonnie?"

"Time to negotiate." Bonnie said calmly and with an aura of power that Nisha had never seen before.

Bonnie wasn't being Bonnie right now. She was Bonnie Bennet – a powerful witch who wasn't to be reckoned with!

"Negotiate what?" Nisha asked as she too, put her shoes and coat on.

"Her demands." Bonnie said and walked out, leading the way back to the caves.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Damon watched as Stefan finally relaxed enough to fall asleep. Stefan's emotions were strange and troubled. Their connection felt a little strained almost, or perhaps it was that Stefan didn't know how he felt. He had been aggressive and that was unusual for him. Stefan always managed to stay calm and keep the peace but in the last few hours, he had been almost like a different person.

Damon had feared it was grandma's influence but then, this behaviour didn't seem like her either. He knew who it did seem more akin to though and he couldn't contemplate any further lest he become terrified. Giuseppe. All of his life, his father had nothing but contempt for him. He couldn't remember a single moment where he had felt at ease or loved in his company. His father had been a very strict, private man. Not cruel at first, just distant. Giuseppe had left the rearing of young Damon to the women of the household, believing him not to be strong enough to help him with any labours. He'd been a sick child and therefore weaker in muscle and strength.

When Stefan had been born, suddenly it was as though his father had been given a second chance at having a 'man' to run the household. Stefan was fair like their mother and he had more of her likeness. At first Damon hated the baby, but he couldn't deny the brotherly love that grew whenever Stefan giggled up at him or grabbed at his fingers to suck. Stefan was like an angel, another part of his mother whom he could love and help shape so that he wouldn't grow up to treat him like Giuseppe did. Brothers were supposed to be friends, to share things, to be close. Ironic they never realised how close they'd become in all manners.

He sighed and rubbed his nose along the inside of Stefan's neck. Stefan made a small sigh of recognition but didn't waken.

"I won't lose you Stefan. Wherever you go, I'm going with you." He whispered softly.

He rested his head on his raised arm and counted Stefan's breaths, relaxing for a few minutes until he felt a pull on the web. Nathan. He sighed tiredly and got up as quietly as he could, feeling a little odd and dizzy when he left the cave. He closed his eyes for a second and fought a wave of nausea, making Nathan reach out and steady him in concern. He nodded at him in thanks. Must be the air in the cave or something.

"Have you found something? Something to get her out?" He turned to Bonnie.

"Not exactly." She exhaled.

He frowned and looked to Nathan.

Nathan emotions were all over the place, but consisted mostly of fear and horror. What was going on?

"Damon, we need to work quickly ok? Now, you have to hear me out before you fly off the handle." Bonnie warned and he gave a confused snort. "We need to allow Grandma to take Stefan's body for a while."

"No way." Damon said angrily and stared her out, surprising everyone.

Nathan frowned at him. Damon had said he'd have no problems getting her to come forward and helping her kill Klaus if it meant she left Stefan after. Why had he changed his mind now?

"It's the only way." She said calmly, studying him carefully.

"Alpha…" Nathan began when Damon growled and halted him.

"We don't have time for this Damon, Stefan's soul is being eaten by the spirits that are trying to get into him. He's dying!" Nisha exclaimed and Damon looked to Bonnie accusingly.

"Because you can't get her out right?! Because your little book of gobbledy gook is just fucking that, witch!" Damon moved to grab her, his full vampire face showing and she put her hand up and fried some of his blood vessels as Nathan and Nisha fell back in shock.

Damon cried out and fell to his knees. Nathan panted, unsure what to do as he looked from one to the other.

"Bonnie..!" He cried out, torn that his alpha was being tortured by his friend and she lowered her hand and released Damon.

Damon held his head and panted.

"It's already starting Damon. Can't you feel how much anger you have inside? _Your_ soul is being affected by what's happening to him too."

"How?" Nisha asked, looking at Damon worriedly.

"Everything about their bodies, spirits and life force is all spun together like yarn. Stefan's soul is being eaten by the other spirits inside of him so it's impinging his personality, his feelings and we know which spirit visited last." Bonnie explained and Damon looked up at her, still panting as he listened. "Now, it's affecting Damon too."

Nathan moved to Damon and helped him up onto his feet.

_Do you feel different?_

_No._

Damon channelled, shaking his head.

_You went for her. You just snapped._

Nathan said worriedly and Damon rubbed his eyes as he thought on it.

"I know you have a temper alpha, but that wasn't you just then." Nathan said and Damon searched his eyes. "Was that…did your father…" he paused, full of discomfort, "Was your father like that when he lost his temper?"

Damon's eyes widened in realisation and he looked to Bonnie, feeling terror climb up his spine. She nodded at him knowingly.

"He's getting into a part of you through Stefan now. The only way to stop any more people trying to get to Stefan is to block Stefan out." She said and Nathan squeezed Damon's shoulders in sympathy, remembering their conversation about how terrifying an ordeal that would be.

"Block him out?" Nisha asked as Damon paled and struggled to breathe.

"He's in pain and being consumed because they are all fighting for dominance. If we give her his body, then only she will have any power."

"So Stefan's soul will be safe?" Nathan asked shakily.

"Safer. We still have to negotiate her leaving his body."

"But if she does, then won't the other spirits try to take him over again?" Nathan frowned.

"Put her into my body." Damon croaked. "Let her have me."

Nathan scented Damon's cheek and rubbed his back as Bonnie sighed and chewed her lip.

"I'm sorry Damon, it's not possible. The reason she has been able to do this is because of the spell we used to bring him back. He has and always will have a half-ling soul now and that's why they can get inside." She said solemnly. "All magic has consequences."

"So this is going to happen forever?" Nathan blanched and Bonnie shrugged unsure.

"Let's use this." Nisha said, thinking aloud. "Let's use this as a bargaining tool. If she has help on the other side, then maybe they can restore Stefan fully to his body in exchange for allowing grandma to use it now."

"How do we know she isn't just going to get Stefan's body killed anyway? If Klaus thinks Stefan is gone, _he_ might kill the body and if _she_ succeeds in killing Klaus, which is doubtful – she either might kill the rest of us or decide she wants to keep his body." Nathan argued.

"Not if she can't." Damon mumbled and they looked to him. "Stefan's body can't live without mines and if he's gone…"

Bonnie nodded quickly, thinking as Nathan and Nisha looked to Damon grimly.

"If she really does kill Stefan's soul…then you kill me. Simple." Damon looked to Bonnie.

"Alpha…" Nathan tried to argue and Damon shook his head. "Alpha you have a baby. She needs you too."

"I'd never be the kind of father she needed if I don't have Stefan. I'll ruin her." He looked to Nathan full of emotion. "You know I would." He added in a whisper.

"Ok then." Bonnie nodded and Nisha put her face in her hands in grief and fear.

"If grandma has watched us, she'll know that you will do it, to protect everyone else. She knows we're not friends. She'll know the threat of you killing me is set in stone if she doesn't hold up her end of the bargain." Damon pointed out and Bonnie chewed her lip but nodded.

Grandma would know that Bonnie was a witch whose confidence and pursuit of the greater good was her driving force. If killing Damon would stop grandma being able to keep Stefan's body and perhaps kill countless others when Stefan's bloodlust got out of control – which was inevitable, then Grandma would know for certain that Bonnie wouldn't hesitate.

"Let's do this." Bonnie moved into the cave first, with Damon close behind.

Stefan was still asleep, but with a bleeding nose. Damon pushed past Bonnie on the stairs as he smelled it and rushed to him.

"Stefan?" He cupped his face gently and Stefan opened his eyes groggily.

Bonnie and the others filtered in behind him and kept silent.

"What have you done to me?" Stefan whispered, seeming in pain and Damon frowned in confusion. "You were my brother."

"Huh?"

"You aren't supposed to touch me like that." Stefan struggled to speak as Damon tried to wipe the blood from his nose. "You're sick, boy. Disgusting."

Damon's blood ran cold and Nathan came behind and pulled Damon away from him.

"That's not Stefan, alpha." Nathan comforted, holding Damon back.

_Stefan? Stefan can you feel me?_

Damon channelled frantically and Bonnie lay a hand on his shoulder and moved past him to kneel before Stefan.

"I need to speak to Stefan." She said.

Stefan blinked and coughed, pulling at the chains.

"Stefan?" Damon croaked.

"Pull on him alpha." Nathan nudged him and Damon concentrated on their connection and pulled.

Stefan groaned and coughed again, before looking to Bonnie with dilated eyes.

"Bonnie?"

"Stefan, listen to me carefully. We're losing you. She's too strong and there are others inside of you too. They will hurt you unless you allow grandma to come forward."

"What?!" He said panicked and looked at Damon.

Damon paled, licking his lips and knelt down beside her.

"She'll hurt people!" He cried and Damon lay his hand on Stefan's chest comfortingly.

"Stefan, remember the note she left you?" Bonnie prompted and he nodded. "That's what's causing the pain. If you continue to fight…" she swallowed hard at the fear in his expression, "you have to let go and trust us. Trust that we can deal with her."

_Fear, confusion…_

_Love. I will make sure we bring you back little blood machine. If you fight, you're going to die._

Damon's eyes filled and Stefan choked and closed his eyes, shivering.

"Stefan, we will get you back, but you can't fight ok?" She repeated and he exhaled but nodded.

"Don't let her hurt anyone, please." Stefan croaked.

"Not anyone who matters anyway." Damon mumbled and Stefan looked at him.

"You can't just let her kill him. He'll think it's me." Stefan defended weakly.

Damon huffed, annoyed that even now, Stefan still cared whether someone like Klaus suffered.

"Then we'll warn him and let him figure out what to do." Nathan chirped in and Stefan gave a tired nod.

"If she gets too dangerous…" Stefan began to fade and Damon cupped his face again gently, moving Bonnie out of the way again.

"Sleep little blood machine." He whispered and kissed him softly.

Stefan kissed back briefly and closed his eyes sighing. His body seemed to deflate and Damon sat back on his knees, stroking his hairline gently. Everyone waited with baited breath as the seconds ticked past.

Finally Stefan inhaled deeply and opened his eyes, looking around.

"Hello grandma." Damon said tightly as grandma pulled at the chains above her and broke them from the wall in one motion.


	23. Chapter 23

Everyone watched warily as Stefan, or rather 'grandma' stood up. Damon stood also and bristled in discomfort as grandma brushed herself down, checking that the wounded arm had healed.

"Grandma." He said again and she looked at him.

"Like I said I do have a name."

Everyone bristled. So strange to hear Stefan's voice but with her words. Damon swallowed nervously.

"Which is?" Bonnie braved and she looked to her, studying her.

"Bennet. Nice to see you with real eyes." She commented. "My name is Eve."

Damon snorted and she ignored him completely as she sized up Nathan.

"This telepathy you have between you. I can feel it." She said and they all tensed.

Damon hoped that she would be unable to tap into that particular gift so she wouldn't know what they were thinking. She seemed to quieten as she focussed on it. Damon put his force field up, like he'd learned to do when Stefan had had his humanity turned off by Klaus and she looked at him and frowned as though she was concentrating.

"Sorry lady. That phone line is for Stefan only." He smirked evily and she seemed displeased.

Alpha?

Nathan channelled nervously and Damon bit his lip.

Imagine you are in a bubble so she can't hear your thoughts. You and I can be in the same bubble.

Nathan instructed and grandma chuckled as she looked from one to the other.

"He doesn't have the same mental control as you do Damon. Besides, it'd be better if I can contact you when I need you." She commented and Damon looked to her sharply.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, now Stefan is…asleep and I'm no longer wounded, I'll be on my way – with your blood of course." She said matter of factly and Bonnie stepped forward.

"Not so fast. First of all we make a deal."

"A deal?" Grandma crossed her arms, amused.

"Temporary use of Stefan's body, in exchange for full return when you've accomplished what you want to do here." Bonnie said firmly. "With no harm to anyone, but Klaus, including Stefan's body."

She seemed to think on it for a second.

"And what are you bringing to the table?" She asked sceptically.

"No fight from us." Bonnie said confidently.

"So you won't try and get in my way?" She raised an eyebrow and looked to each of them.

"Help yourself." Damon shrugged and tried to sit down nonchalantly. "I don't give a damn about Klaus."

She looked to Bonnie.

"And you?"

"He can fight his own battles. If you've watched our lives, you know what he's done to us."

"I've had no interest in your lives until the nearing of my spell. So, naturally I'm inclined to be suspicious of your intentions."

"You're the murderer here!" Nathan spat, trying to control his hatred. "The murderer of children."

Grandma waved her arm in dismissal and returned her gaze to Damon.

"You made the right decision, telling him not to fight. I would truly have grieved for him if he'd been consumed." She seemed to have a genuine tone and Damon fought his veins protruding in anger.

"You would know, it was you who was eating his soul!" Nathan growled and Grandma continued to stare at Damon.

"You have an interesting love between you. Not everyone would accept it."

Damon glared at her angrily. Nathan geared up to grab her and Bonnie put her hand out to calm him.

"Then you understand the sacrifice that they will make to be together." Bonnie said and Grandma looked at her over her shoulder, still facing Damon.

"That Damon will kill himself if Stefan perishes. Yes. I'm aware."

"Or be killed." Damon piped in hinting towards Bonnie so there could be absolutely no uncertainty of that fact. "And if I die, you're dust."

Grandma gave a small smile.

"Fear not. My intention isn't to harm any of my own. You are after all, my descendants, despite your demonic transformation. I will return him to you safely. It's not me you have to fear."

"What do you mean?" Nathan asked.

"The spirits know his body is a gateway now. I couldn't prevent them trying to get into him."

"Then you better find a way." Damon said simply.

"That, is your area. I'm bargaining only for safe return of his body." She turned to Bonnie fully now. "This is your mistake. Your inexperience in casting such a powerful spell, has left these consequences and only you can fix it now."

Bonnie swallowed bile. It was true. She hadn't considered that the cost of her splitting Damon's soul to bring part of Stefan back, would be that he would be vulnerable to possession by others. She had to figure out how to reconnect his body with more of his soul, but the majority of his soul was with the higher self then it wasn't in this dimension – instead some heaven-like reality.

"Your sympathy for your family is heart-warming." Nathan grunted.

"I didn't cause this…Nathan." She smiled as she got his name correct and he swallowed. "There's nothing I can do, even if I wanted to. Besides, vampires are not one with nature. He's on his own, whereas you, my young man…" she smiled and stepped towards him.

He backed away from her in surprise.

"You will continue my line. You're healthy and full of life. You are my progeny where the mates can never be."

"Are you forgetting the impossible children?" Bonnie folded her arms. "Two survived. They are your progeny too and you owe them more than you could possibly imagine."

Grandma sighed and shook her head as though irritated.

"Don't speak of them to me again." She said sternly to all of them and Damon frowned.

Clearly Vida and Toby were a sore point. That was interesting. Notable.

"Now. I'm hungry." She turned to Damon expectantly and he began to laugh mockingly and stood up.

"Well, you'll just have to deal with the refrigerated stuff. My neck belongs to Stefan."

"Don't be ridiculous!" She mocked him back. "This body may feed like a disgusting leech, but I will not! If I must drink blood to fuel this vessel then I will, but in human fashion."

Clearly vampirism disgusted her and it made Damon feel relieved and relaxed.

"Fine. We have plenty of what Stefan's body needs. Do we have a deal then? That you will return his body and soul back to us unharmed?" Bonnie concluded and Grandma nodded.

"Swear on something that means something to you." Nathan growled.

"I swear on my need for vengeance." She said simply and they all nodded and looked at each other. "Now…give me food."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hello?" Stefan shouted, trying to wave his hands clear of the mist in front of him. "Is anyone there?"

He had no idea where he was or when, but he felt cold and afraid. Temperature wasn't normally something that affected him and it was unpleasant. He shivered and held himself as he continued to move forward through the mist.

"Damon?" He called out longingly and yet he knew Damon wasn't here.

He came to a halt and exhaled full of emotion. He felt tired and alone.

"Where am I?"

"Perhaps your question should be, where are you not?" A voice spoke to him from beyond the mist and he blinked trying to see them.

"Where am I not?" He asked, looking around and trying to locate the direction the voice had spoken from. "Hello?"

He paused as he heard footsteps approaching him. He faced their direction and waited, his heart thundering in his chest. He held his stance tight, defensively.

"Who are you?"

"The Devil." The voice said and he exhaled in fear and stepped backwards quickly, bumping into something hard.

He jumped back and turned around to find out what and saw the side of a wall with an opening. He reached out, still blinded by the mist and felt his way around it.

"What is this place?" He called again.

"Where the truth lies." The voice said again, before hearing lots of footsteps approaching.

He looked around wildly and backed himself up against the wall, breathing harshly. Footsteps sounded behind him, from within the cave like structure and he prepared himself as they got nearer.

"Show yourselves!" He shouted and he felt hands pull him from behind.

He yelled in fear and fell over as he was dragged deeper into the cave.

"Let me go!" He screamed, still unable to see their faces. "What are you doing?!"

"Judgement day."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Damon glowered at Grandma, watching as Bonnie handed her a bottle of his blood. Nathan had been too angry to watch and had stormed out of the cave to cool off. Nisha made Damon a glass of bourbon and watched him, ready for him to lose his head.

Grandma took the bottle from Bonnie warily and studied it, scrunching up her nose at the texture and colour. She unscrewed the cap and the scent drifted to her nose. Instantly her vampire face came forth and she gasped and salivated. She touched one of his eyes in amazement and shock and looked to Damon. Damon gave her a blank look of indifference.

She tentatively lifted the bottle to her lips and took in a small amount, swallowing, expecting the taste to be vile. As it slid down her throat her whole body warmed and flooded her with endorphins. The shock of it was so intense that she became unsteady as her knees turned to rubber and she fell into the sofa beside her. Damon sat up straight, worried about Stefan's body, but it was Nisha who went to her and helped her sit properly.

"Ok?" Nisha asked and Grandma nodded thankfully and looked to Damon again.

Damon stood up and went into the bedroom, closing the door.

"He's not your friend." Bonnie said, coming to stand in front of grandma and block her access to the bedroom where Damon was currently throwing things around.

"He ought to be considering how precious this body is." Grandma pointed out.

She lifted the bottle to her mouth again and drank deeper this time, swallowing and moaning in joy for its taste. It was the most luxurious elixir she had ever had. She could see its appeal now. Already she could feel her body glow with strength. She finished it quickly and sighed as she closed her eyes peacefully.

"So what's the plan?" Bonnie asked, crossing her arms.

"Look up some old friends." Grandma answered and Bonnie and Nisha exchanged glances. "Then I will make a plan of attack."

"Stefan drinks at least one bottle a day of Damon's blood and nothing else – no other blood or you'll be sick." Bonnie explained and moved to the cupboard to begin putting some into a bag for her.

Nisha sat down, chewing her lip and looking to the bedroom nervously.

"You're a healer." Grandma looked at Nisha and Nisha swallowed nervously.

"Yes."

"Where is your child?" Grandma leaned forward, sniffing her and Nisha's heart squeezed.

"With the pack." She lied. "We had to move all of the cubs out of the camp because of you." Nisha tried to hold back some of her venom and keep a cool head.

Grandma studied her for a few moments and Nisha bristled.

"You should go to it. Boy? Yes?"

Nisha nodded tightly. Her poor lost baby had been a boy. She hadn't even named him, he was so premature, she couldn't bear to look at his little body once he'd been delivered. The loss of her mate and her son at the same time had been too much to bear and so she'd simply thrown herself into healing the rest of the pack, fulfilling her role as a beta to her alpha.

"These are times of war and loss. You shouldn't be separated from your children. Keep them close, let no one take them from you." Grandma warned and Bonnie walked in and frowned at the topic of conversation.

"That's a little contradictory wouldn't you say?" Bonnie asked and grandma looked round at her. "Considering you've almost killed the soul of one of your descendants to steal his body to kill another." Bonnie paused as Grandma's face tightened in anger. "Considering you ate the souls of the mates babies – who knows how many."

"23." Grandma said bluntly and with no signs of remorse.

Nisha's mouth fell open at the high number and she gasped. Bonnie nodded at Nisha grimly. Grandma stood up, her vampire face coming forth as she moved towards Bonnie.

"23 souls that I made! That I created! Don't think for a second that I don't value their contribution to my cause, but the fact is, that they were my souls in the first place – they were never going to pass over onto this realm." She growled now and Bonnie tightened, getting ready to burst a few brain cells again, when Damon threw the bedroom door open and blurred to grandma, throwing her against a wall and pinning her there as he growled and panted.

Grandma gasped, winded and looked at him, studying his face, how the veins were animated under his eyes and she fought against his hold on her hands as she tried to reach and touch his face. Damon slammed her hard against the wall again and bore his fangs angrily.

"Don't touch me." He said coldly. "Whatever fantasy you have in your head about the crap you think I'll buy, forget it because I don't give a shit about what you want or how wronged you've been! I should kill you right now and be done with it. Stefan would want that." He warned and Nisha stood up nervously and called his name.

"You grieve for them don't you?" Grandma studied his face still and he gave a mocking smirk. "And here I've been informed you care for no one except yourself."

"You don't know anything about me." He growled.

"Oh no?" She chuckled, making him angrier. "I met a few of your acquaintances whilst inside Stefan's head. I must say – the paint an interesting picture of you…boy." She sneered and he hit her against the wall again.

"Damon!" Bonnie called sternly and with command and he paused as Grandma laughed in his face. "Don't give her the satisfaction."

He pushed himself away from her and stood back, breathing and shaking off his urge to choke her until unconscious. It would only be Stefan's precious neck anyway. Nisha came up behind him and rubbed his back consolingly.

"You're version of love is interesting. I wonder if Stefan feels the same." Grandma pondered and Bonnie exhaled and threw the backpack full of Damon's bottles towards her.

She caught it with a speed so swift that she seemed surprised and impressed at Stefan's reflexes. She smiled and looked to them all.

"Good. I'll be on my way then." She said as she slid the backpack on after a few seconds of trying to figure out how to put it on.

"Our deal. Don't forget. I will take you down." Bonnie reminded and Grandma smirked. "Don't provoke me. If you've only stared watching us recently then you haven't seen the pain that comes when a mate dies. Trust me, you don't want it."

She looked to Bonnie as though trying to figure if she was lying. Bonnie's face told it all as she remembered when Stefan had died at first – the agony that Damon went through, to the point of begging Alaric to stake him. A few seconds of looking at Bonnie were enough to convince grandma of the truth of it and she nodded subtly.

The front door knocked and Nathan stepped in, wearing a backpack of his own and clenching his jaw.

Alpha, I'll go with her. Keep Stefan safe.

Damon frowned at him and shook his head.

No, you need to stay and protect Vida.

Nathan frowned but Damon drew him a look of command and he sighed and nodded.

"What are you doing?" Nisha asked Nathan.

"Looking after the pack." Damon said in response and looked to Grandma. "You're not going anywhere without an escort."

"Is that so?" Grandma flexed her muscles.

"I'm not leaving Stefan's body in your hands alone. You don't even know what it can do!" Damon spat. "You don't know anything you're dealing with."

"And you're going to teach me are you? Take care of me?" Grandma prowled closer to him and Damon bristled in discomfort.

"No, I'm going to keep you alive long enough for you to get the hell out!" He growled and Nathan chewed his lip.

Alpha. If she has Stefan's strength she could hurt you or force you to feed her.

Damon looked at him and frowned.

If that other pack of wolves comes back again, we'll need help to keep the cubs safe. What would Stefan want you to do?

Damon gritted his teeth together and stepped back from grandma. She looked from one to the other, concentrating on trying to tune into their communication but she was locked out. She exhaled annoyed and looked to Nisha.

"You. You can accompany me and protect darling Stefan's body." She pointed at Nisha. "You, I can trust not to try and injure me."

Nisha looked to Damon and Nathan in surprise, looking for permission. Damon chewed his lip.

She won't feel threatened by wolves.

Nathan suggested and Damon gave a brief nod.

You know to put her down if she does anything to hurt Stefan.

You can count on me alpha.

Damon and Bonnie looked to each other.

"Nathan goes too." Damon looked to grandma and she seemed pleased with that arrangement as she nodded.

"Ok." Bonnie looked to them all. "Do what you're going to, without hurting anyone but close and we'll be waiting."

Grandma exhaled happily and walked past them all, out of the front door. Nathan and Nisha looked to each other.

"Be careful." Bonnie said to them both. "We know what she wants but we have no idea how and who she really is – what she's capable of."

"I'm her progeny now. Clearly that's still important to her." Nathan said as Damon trembled with adrenaline, struggling not to go with them. "Be a father, make Stefan proud and I'll bring him back to you."

Damon paled and finally reached for his bourbon.

"I may not be magical, but I will do whatever I can Damon." Nisha said softly. "Ian will be returning later at 8 tonight to check on you both. He'll lead you to where the new camp is."

Nathan and Nisha left together, planning to return to Nisha's lodge for a few supplies before they set off and Damon sat down, his chest tight and his lungs closing. Bonnie took a seat across from him and studied him as she tried to think plan for every eventuality.

"It makes sense to let them wolves go." She said softly, thinking on it.

"They are mortal." Damon croaked, fearing he was making a mistake.

Surely it would be better to have a stronger, not as easy to kill escort to protect Stefan's body.

"Nathan is one of your line and he's stronger for that. Klaus won't automatically kill him due to that and he understands what Stefan's body needs."

"And why the hell did she want Nish?" He looked at her in query.

"I have no idea. Perhaps the knowledge of naturopathy that Nisha seems to have. After all, we both know that taking Klaus on with brute force won't work. She must have other ideas."

Damon nodded at that.

"Never thought I'd leave my life in the hands of some dogs." Damon tried to joke but failed as his stomach clenched.

"Not dogs anymore, your pack."

Damon nodded and drained his glass as he looked to Vida's baby bottle, lying wedged between two cushions on the sofa. His angel. Thank god Grandma hadn't been interested in hurting her. Still, they could never be sure of what went on in the mind of that crazy bitch.

They'd just have to take their chances and dance with the devil.


	24. Chapter 24

Stefan shot up onto his feet as soon as he was dumped and strained to see. It was much darker in the cave.

"Not so much fun not being a vampire here huh?" A voice spoke again.

So odd to not be able to tell whether the voice was male or female.

"No super hearing, no extra sight…"

"Enough! Show yourself!" He called out angrily and waited.

Was that true? Was he not a vampire anymore?

"I don't have a body Stefan." The voice said and he paused, looking around in confusion.

"Then what are you?" He asked, his throat thick with fear.

Silence. He continued to wait, hearing only the sound of his own heartbeat and breathing.

"Hello?" He called out again, but there was nothing.

He exhaled, full of emotion and tried to find the nearest wall again. There had been so many people pulling him back here, grabbing at him. Where had they all gone? What was the point of this? He tripped over uneven ground and fell, hitting his face off of the ground and groaning as he sat up. He touched his mouth and felt blood there. He sat up and tried to see his fingertips. It was too dark to see a thing. He felt blind. He licked his lip and tasted the blood, wincing. His blood still tasted the same, orangey and mated. He gave out an exhalation of relief. He was still a vampire. Just one who didn't have access to some of his senses then.

He stood back up, waving his hands around until he found the nearest wall and ran his hands over it.

"Not much of a lesson to leave me completely alone." He said out loud. "If that's what you're trying to do."

He heard a chorus of laughter in the distance and he shivered. It was so eery.

"What's the point of this all?" He called out.

A set of footsteps began to head towards him and he struggled to figure out from which direction as he whirled around trying to hear. Evidently he was in cave still as the sound bounced from one wall to another. He sat down defiantly, unwilling to play this game any longer and waited until he could see a pair of feet. He tensed and watched as a figure stepped into his view, despite the fact that he couldn't see anything else around it, no light source at all.

He strained to see the face and it stepped closer to him. A woman. He opened his mouth to ask who she was when he realised and shot up onto his feet.

"Mother?!" He gasped and the figure looked at him from head to toe. "Mother, is that you?"

"I am not your mother demon." The figure said and he exhaled as he heard her voice, her soft velvety voice.

Just as her remembered it. She'd died when he'd been a baby but now that he heard her voice he knew it was the one from his earliest memories. She'd sung to him. He tried to walk towards her but the figure stepped back so he paused.

"Mother!" He became emotional, "It's me, Stefan."

"You are not my Stefan. My Stefan was a kind, innocent soul." The figure said. "You are the devil."

"No, I…" Stefan croaked and shook his head beseechingly.

"You devoured my son's soul when you became a vampire - destroyed him, my angel." She said, becoming emotional herself and Stefan sagged down onto his knees before her.

"It wasn't my choice mother, I…I had no choice!"

"You could have died and come to me." She said angrily and he shook his head again as tears filled his eyes. "You could have stopped so much evil and death."

"I tried. I tried to fight the urge, but I couldn't. I wasn't strong enough." He hung his head.

"And then you killed your brother too! My sons, both gone, lost forever!"

"No, I'm here. We're both here, mother. Damon is with me, he's a part of me." Stefan looked up at her face again, begging for some kind of understanding as he held his hand over his heart to indicate Damon's whereabouts.

His mother shook her head and looked behind her, as other footsteps began to advance on them again. She began to back away, back into the dark and he panicked.

"Mother please! Please, I need you. I've needed you since I can remember."

Then he realised. The figure paused and studied him as the wheels in his head turned.

"Wait." He whispered to himself.

His mother had died when he had been a baby. How the hell did she know who he grew up to be as a human boy? She didn't know him, not really. How could you tell what kind of person someone was going to be, from knowing them as an infant? She'd said he'd been kind and innocent…her angel…how would she know?

"You never knew me." He said to her, frowning and the figure disappeared entirely.

He sat back on his heels and sighed. Had that been her really? Bonnie said spirits watched from the other side and if that was true then perhaps his mother had watched him grow up before becoming a vampire.

He got to his feet again, worried and called for her. He moved forward into the space she had been and fell through a hole he hadn't known was there. He cried out as he landed in a heap on hard soil.

"There'll be a white rabbit next." He groaned as he stood up and brushed himself off.

"Help, someone help!" He heard a woman scream and he looked around.

Light filled the cavern and he realised he was outside again, on the land surrounded by a small village. Something about it was oddly familiar. Was it Mystic Falls? He looked around trying to find something familiar, when a woman screamed for help again. He took off running in her direction and ran into a house surrounded by bodies and blood everywhere. He halted in fear and looked around for the woman.

"Help me! Help me!" The voice screamed and he ventured on inside, trying to step over the piles of bodies everywhere.

What the hell was this?

He stumbled into a room, trying not to panic and saw a woman holding a baby which was clearly dead, in her arms.

"Help me!" She cried to him.

He gulped down bile and moved to her.

"Come with me, I've got you, it's ok." He said and put his arm around her, trying not to look at the infant – who clearly had been dead for some days.

Its skin was a yellow colour and its eyes were closed as though sleeping. He heard no heartbeat however.

"Come on." He guided her, lifting her into his arms as he carried her out into the street again, trying to use vamp speed but finding that he couldn't.

He lay her on her feet carefully, concerned by his body's slowness, when the woman shrank back behind him. He looked up as he heard angry voices approaching. People arrived with weapons and stopped in front of them yelling for them to halt.

"Stop! We need help!" He shouted and the men pointed their guns towards him. "What are you doing?!"

"Step away from her!" One man called and Stefan panted, wide eyed in confusion. "Get away! She's a demon!"

Stefan blocked her steadily and they prepared to fire. Then suddenly behind him he heard a roar. It was unlike anything he'd ever heard before. The very sound seemed to make every hair on his body stand on end in fear. There was almost no sound to it, but the vibration, the hatred in it he most certainly felt.

Guns began to fire at him and he dove out of the way, reaching to grab the woman with him when he realised who the roaring was coming from. He fell over, bullets in his stomach and legs and watched horrified as the woman's mouth opened impossibly wide. She looked like the most horrific monster he'd ever seen. Her eyes glowed red like blood and he found himself unable to breathe.

The men all screamed at each other and continued to fire, but nothing seemed to affect her. She advanced on them in a blur and Stefan threw himself backwards as there was a blur of blood and screaming in the air. He pushed himself back in fear and tried to get back onto his feet, when he tripped over something and fell again. He stood up hurriedly and realised he was on top of more bodies, thousands more, tens of thousands more and he cried out terrified. He looked around and saw the entire landscape covered in the mutilated dead.

Suddenly everything was quiet and he began to weep as he tried to turn around. Death everywhere. Horror. He looked back to where he had been and saw the lone figure of the woman, now covered head to toe in blood and standing in the midst of a bloodbath. He tried not to breathe too loudly in fear and she looked over at him, her face now normal.

He held himself tight to the spot in fear and watched her as she smiled at him softly and then returned her gaze to the dead child. He swallowed. She opened the front of her blouse and exposed her bosom, placing the child's face in at her nipple. He watched in horror. The child was dead and had been for days at least. This woman, whatever else she was, was completely insane.

She began to hum to the child softly and Stefan looked around discretely for a place to escape to where there weren't mountains of bodies, when he heard a strange sound. He looked to her and gaped.

The baby moved. He gasped and shook his head as revulsion filled him. No, that baby was dead – not vampire dead, fully dead, decaying…

The child cried out and latched onto her breast to feed and the woman looked over at him and smiled again. He shook his head and backed up a step as she turned towards him.

Family. Pack.

She channelled.

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"You really think that you can kill Klaus with a bunch of herbs and weeds?" Nathan snorted in a Damon-like fashion as grandma collected some from the woods.

"In a fashion." She replied and Nisha kept her mouth closed as she kept a mental note of what was being picked.

"He's an original." Nathan pointed out. "The only thing that can kill him is a special stake."

"Non-sense." Grandma dismissed.

Nathan grabbed her arm and halted her, making her glare at him.

"Listen to me! I don't care what happens to him but you better be planning to hatch a plan that you'll survive!" He warned. "This better not be a suicide mission."

"It's not." She ripped her arm back from him and struggled as the vampiric veins tingled under her eyes.

Nathan and Nisha stepped back a little. Grandma huffed and touched her face.

"For god's sake!" She shouted. "What now?"

Nathan stood infront of Nisha carefully.

"It's not hunger."

"What?" Grandma groaned, blinking hard to make the veins go away.

"It's anger. Anger makes it happen too." Nisha squeaked and Grandma closed her eyes and tried to breathe.

"A few deep breaths." Nathan encouraged and the veins retreated once more.

"Let that be a lesson to you. Do not provoke me. I may not be able to control this body." Grandma warned and began to walk onwards again.

Nisha and Nathan looked at each other and held hands, following her. Ian's words floating back to him like moments of clarity. Stefan's body was vampire and wolf. They were not the same. With grandma inside, it was a very great possibility that she would kill him and Nisha. Stefan wasn't there to prevent that. He was in over his head. He was just a human wolf, playing with dangerous creatures all because he couldn't let go of his love for one in particular. Was he being stupid? Should he have let Damon do this? Damon was stronger, a match for grandma. This was their story, their journey.

He hadn't been happy or content living at the boarding house without them, but he hadn't been in constant danger of death. Perhaps if he'd stayed there, he'd have eventually found himself, his place in the world and he'd have been able to start his own journey. These wolves who'd taken Stefan and Damon in, wouldn't have had all of this horror if they'd gone on their way. Perhaps if the time came…the best thing to do would be to leave this to the mates as Ian had suggested.

They were his family but they weren't his kind. They had their own priorities and he needed to figure out what his were.

They followed behind grandma for a while, no one speaking, until they reached Nathan's car. Grandma turned to him expectantly.

"Where do we go?" He asked.

"New Orleans." Was the reply and he nodded and silently gestured for Nisha to climb in the back.

Once they were all inside, he turned on the ignition and noticed Grandma had no seat belt on. He reached over to pull it for her when he was pushed back harshly and winded. He panted, holding his chest and Nisha cried out for Grandma to stop. He grimaced and watched her. She was panting furiously and watching his movements with fear in her expression.

"Seatbelt." He croaked, trying to speak and Grandma frowned.

Nisha leaned in front and moved very slowly to indicate to Grandma what to do. Grandma followed her movement and clicked the belt in in astonishment. Nathan rested back into his seat and gathered himself.

"Sorry." Grandma said and he nodded. "Move."

He started the ignition and Grandma held onto the handle on the door in fear. He moved off slowly, coughing every now and then as Grandma kept her eyes on the road terrified.

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"Hey." Isabella smiled warmly as she let Damon into their makeshift hut.

This camp wasn't as comfortable as the lodges but it had been thrown up quickly, so what could he expect. He stepped inside and looked around, seeing Vida asleep in a travel cot. He moved over to her and looked in.

"How is she?" He asked gently as he stroked the hair on her head.

"Confused." Isabella sighed.

"She eating?" He looked to her and she nodded.

He relaxed instantly. Thank god for that.

Ian came in behind him and paused respectfully.

"I built you a hut, just temporarily until we can move on again.

"Again?" Damon frowned, turning to him. "What are you, nomads?"

"We still have no idea what we're up against. We have to keep moving to make sure that we keep the pack safe." Ian advised and Damon swallowed.

"Have you heard from them?" Ian softened and sat down on what looked like a cut tree truck, offering Damon a cup of warm whiskey.

Damon reached in and lifted Vida carefully into his arms, sitting down beside him as Isabella grimaced in fear of the baby waking.

"No thanks." Damon shook his head, marvelling at how much bigger Vida was.

"Have you? Heard anything?" Ian probed as Damon stared down at his angel's face and lay a kiss on her forehead.

"No." He mumbled.

"Can you feel him?"

"No." Damon answered pointedly and looked at him. "I've cut the phone line."

"Is that wise? If we don't know where Stefan is, how will we know where to move the pack?" Ian said concerned but trying not to push too hard.

"It's not Stefan." Damon said bluntly, before continuing. "If I can't feel her, she can't feel me. She won't have a clue where we are until the time is right."

Ian nodded a little and sipped from his cup. Vida gurned and turned in Damon's arms and he began to rock her slightly. She buried her face in his arm and sniffed his scent, instantly drifting to sleep again.

"I'm glad you're here. Your shirt wasn't working anymore." Isabella gave a small smile of relief.

"What do we know?" Ian asked, sitting back.

"Nathan's channeling. They're picking herbs for some kind of anti-Klaus mojo. She's not sharing her plans with them though." Damon whispered, still rocking Vida.

"Is there a chance that something like that could work?" Isabella sat down too.

"No way. The only thing that'll kill him is a white oak stake and damned if I know where it is. Stefan killed Klaus's father with it and I don't know what happened to it after that."

"Stefan doesn't have it?" Ian leaned forward.

"No."

"How could he leave it behind?" Isabella frowned and Damon sighed and sat back.

"We were indisposed at the time, dying actually. Having a check list of things to fetch from Klaus's evil hideaway, wasn't really on our list of priorities." He said and Isabella blushed, embarrassed.

"Hideaway." Ian chewed his lip. "Yeah he seems to have a lot of those. Where was this hideaway?"

"He'll never go back there again. He moves on." Damon yawned.

"Will he still be doing that now? With Beth and Toby?" Isabella asked and Damon sucked his bottom lip as he considered that.

The inclusion of Beth and Toby into the mix certainly would change things. Perhaps if Klaus was trying to be good, trying to care for them as family, then he might not hide away or be plotting in his usual fashion. Habit of a lifetime though…

"I don't know." He mumbled.

"How does Stef…she, think she'll find him then? I mean if she can't access your channeling abilities." Ian posed and Damon shook his head unsure.

"I'm sure she's got a wicked plan. She usually does."

Vida began to squirm again and Damon stood up carefully.

"Let me know if you find anything more about the other wolves who attacked us." Damon said and Ian nodded.

Damon moved out of the hut, holding Vida to him as she began to gurn. It felt like days since he'd held her. He moved to the hut opposite – which had Salvatore painted on the doorway. He sighed looking at it and moved in. It was small and basic but functional. There was a bed and a crib placed beside it, along with a log to sit on. These wolves really knew how to rough it. Still, he couldn't complain, they had made this hut for him and protected his angel.

She began to cry and he cooed and rocked her, walking over to the bed.

"Hey lady Salvatore. Daddy's here." He whispered and she opened her eyes tiredly and sniffled.

She didn't seem to register that Stefan wasn't there as she channelled hunger and he was glad. He sat with his back up against the headboard of the bed and opened his shirt buttons. She grabbed a piece of his shirt and let her veins come forth.

"No skin shirt today." He cooed and she looked up at him curiously. "Drink up angel."

He tilted her towards his neck and she bit down greedily. He was glad he could give her fresh blood. It was better for her. The bottled stuff just wasn't the same. He just hoped he had enough of Stefan's to last him. He would not drink from that bitch. He sighed and lay his head back, closing his eyes as she drank and squeezed his shirt cloth.

He wasn't quite sure what to do from here. It felt wrong to let Grandma walk away with Stefan's body but what choice did he have? She held the cards right now. So where did that leave Stefan? Was he floating around in his mind, conscious but paralysed? Or was he unaware, asleep?

Vida sighed, drooling his blood down his chest and he bounced her, burping her. She gurgled, resting her face against his chin and he kissed the side of her head. She began to chatter against his skin and squeeze her fingers into his shoulder and he sighed in grief. Soon she was going to realise that Stefan was missing. Last time one of them had been absent, she'd been so distressed she hadn't eaten, then again, she'd been craving his milk or whatever the hell had come out of him so perhaps that had been a factor too. How was he supposed to explain or calm her? How was he supposed to reassure her when she was so little she couldn't understand what was happening?

He sat with her for a little while playing the flying game and bouncing her as though she was on a horse, trying to think of how he could tire her out. When she leaned back and looked up at him giggling, it made his chest tight. Her eyes were so large and clear, so innocent. He found himself unable to hold her gaze for long. She would have so many questions in her tiny mind. She said 'dadda' a few times and frowned when he just gave a small smile back. He couldn't muster a lie, because that's what it would be. Stefan might be gone forever. The chances of Grandma surviving an assault with Klaus were low and that meant Stefan's body would be destroyed. If she won, she might not give it back. Could he really let Bonnie kill him? Would he be able to? Last time he'd asked Rick to kill him, he hadn't had a baby. Everything had been about Stefan. He hadn't had any friends really and now things were different. He had friends and allies, he had Vida and Nathan – no matter how strange their relationship was, he felt responsible for Nathan too. Grandma could use that against him.

He lay Vida down into her crib and rubbed his eyes. She reached her hands up for him unhappily and gurned and he put his face in his hands. He felt alone.

"Daaaa!" She screamed unhappily and rolled onto her side and he looked down at her, his expression sad and grim.

"If it's just you and me kiddo…" he trailed off, sighing.

He'd ruin her. He just knew it. Stefan was his compass for good behaviour, himself he was naturally self destructive. If Stefan didn't survive this…

There had to be a way to level the playing field. Grandma had too much power here and she wasn't even alive. She had no allies that were earthbound anymore – they killed the vampire army, the hybrids, the witches who'd cast the mutation mating spell on them all had been killed by the vampire army before they'd even found them. Still, why was Grandma collecting herbs now? Could she still have some witches helping her on this side?

He stood up, walking over to the front door and opened it, breathing in some fresh air. Vida began to cry softly, unhappily and he chewed his lip. He couldn't just sit here idly and play house. He had to fight for Stefan, give him the best chance to survive this and that would mean thinking outside of the box. Where did he begin though?

He closed the door and moved over to Vida again, cooing and scenting her face as he lay her down into his bed. He'd wait till she was asleep and then he'd make a move. Some kind of move, even if it meant that he might perish – but what? What?!


	25. Chapter 25

"Your son, what is his name?" Grandma asked, still trying to calm her racing heart as the car sped along the road.

Nisha fell silent, surprised by the question and Nathan looked at her through the rear view mirror, concerned.

"Andrew." She said eventually – a lie.

In truth she couldn't bear to name the lost soul. She found it easier simply not to think or dwell too much on him. Vida had helped with that immensely.

"Andrew. A good name." Grandma mused. "I had a son called Andrew long ago. He was killed by a vampire."

Nisha and Nathan both tensed and looked to each other via the mirror again.

"It's good both of you should volunteer to escort me. Wolves. My people."

"Not anymore. You're not a wolf." Nathan said in a clipped tone.

"Oh that's where you're wrong. I am the mother of all of you and I will protect you till the end of days."

Nathan glared at her, trying to keep his expression as calm as possible.

"Protect us? Are you mad? You used us, put us in the middle of a war we didn't ask for!"

"And yet you survived the spell. Why do you think that is Nathan?" Grandma turned in her seat and asked him pointedly.

It was so unnerving to see Stefan's eyes look at her, but carry a different personality. He'd thought it would feel strange hating someone who looked like Stefan exactly but the longer she was inside of him, the less her eyes looked like Stefan's. Stefan's face had begun to look like a hideous masquerade mask now, with her eyes peering through from the cut out holes. Those eyes weren't Stefan's despite their green colour. He looked away, unable to stare into them any longer.

"What do you mean?" Nisha leaned forward, taking the bate as Nathan shook his head and bit his bottom lip.

"I could have drained all of you to get what I needed." Grandma said still staring at Nathan. "I chose Nathan to survive."

"You a terrible liar." Nathan growled and tightened his hands on the steering wheel.

Nisha looked between one and the other.

"Why would I lie about it now? You are my handsome progeny. You're young, untainted. The young wolf Michael was weak from the beginning. I needed my successor to be strong and virile."

"Virile!?" Nathan shouted.

"I ensured you survived because I want my family to continue." Grandma smiled and Nisha looked to Nathan, tensing as she saw his anger boil.

"You are not my family." Nathan said coldly, composing himself. "Stefan is my family, Damon, my pack."

"They are monsters who should have died long ago. Even your pack knows this." Grandma looked to Nisha. "Vampires are a disease. I grieve for my mates, poisoned before they were full wolves, but I cannot condone their existence."

"Unless it's useful to you huh?" Nathan sneered, looking to her again. "The spell would have taken three times as many of us mortals if you hadn't had the mate's energy. Made for purpose!" Nathan hissed at the end of his sentence and Nisha gasped as an animal ran out in front of them on the road.

Nathan swerved, causing Grandma to scream in terror. Nisha held onto the seat in front of her and panted as Nathan slowed down and tried to concentrate on the road. Grandma was holding the dash and almost weeping. Silence followed for a few minutes of straight road.

"Enough of this." Grandma croaked, her throat raw from screaming. "Stop this monster now."

Nathan frowned at her.

"Now! We go on foot from now on." Grandma ordered and he begrudgingly slowed and pulled the car over.

Grandma struggled with her seatbelt but managed to unclip it and scramble out of the car in a blur, falling onto her side at her speed on the road. Nisha jumped out and helped her up as Nathan slowly walked around the rear of the vehicle studying her. Grandma was way out of her depth. They'd known she would be but he was finally realising just how much. She couldn't even handle travelling in a car without fear. They could use this. Grandma vomited at the road side and Nisha looked over to him unsure how to proceed. It was in Nisha's nature to be a healer, to care for people, but this spirit…

Alpha, I think we might be onto something here. She is afraid of cars.

Nathan channelled, discretely, fixing his jacket as he concentrated on looking as casual as possible. Grandma didn't seem to notice anyway as she regurgitated Damon's blood and coughed. Nisha gave in and patted her back for her, telling herself she was here to look after Stefan's body only.

Suss her out.

Damon channelled back and Nathan hid a smile. He wasn't sure if their channelling would work so far apart. He felt relieved. Grandma straightened up and looked to him.

"I need to make a call." She instructed and he nodded and handed her his cell phone.

She shook her head and snorted.

"You think I am stupid enough to divulge the number to you?"

"It's your decision." He shrugged and she eyed him suspiciously, before giving out a chuckle.

"I might be new to this life, but I am not an idiot. The kind of call I need to make doesn't use conventional numbers."

"Then what?" Nathan exhaled in annoyance and grandma began to walk away into the woods.

They looked to each other confused and followed after her. What was she planning?

"Do you think..?" Nisha began and he shook his head and pointed towards his ears to remind her of Stefan's vamp hearing.

She nodded, blushing and embarrassed that she'd forgotten and they fell silent and simply followed as the terrain became steep.

"Do you even know where we are?" Nathan called as grandma delighted in her lack of fatigue and continued to climb the steeper path now.

She ignored them and they both panted in effort of trying to keep up with her. Where the hell was she going? After ten minutes of arduous climbing they reached the top of a hill and rested as they looked around to get their bearings. Grandma grabbed a branch and removed Stefan's belt from the jeans she was wearing. Nathan tensed, wondering what she was up to.

"What are you..?" He asked, when she sighed and drew him a look of command to be silent.

Nisha sat down to watch as grandma searched for a sharper piece of rock, grabbing one and beginning to chip at the branch until it was more like a plank, rounded to a point at one side. The concentration on her face, made it intriguing to watch and Nathan also sat down. Once she seemed pleased with the wood, she looked to Stefan's belt again and chewed her lip, unsure.

"What are you doing?" Nathan asked once more and she looked to him, studying his clothing.

"Rope. Get me rope or cord." She commanded and he raised his eyebrows. "I need it."

"What the hell for? Is that a weapon or something?" He asked.

"Rope." She spoke to Nisha instead and Nisha blinked, trying to think where she could find anything like that, up here in the middle of the woods.

Nathan exhaled loudly and removed his backpack, fishing around as Grandma returned her gaze to him in hope. He pulled out some rope and handed it to her. She grinned delighted and nodded satisfied.

"You brought rope? What would that have done?" Nisha asked him perplexed.

He shrugged, admitting it was perhaps silly. It wasn't like they could have tied Grandma up with it. She was too strong to be contained. Then again, he was used to carrying around survival kits when he was in the woods. It had seemed a natural thing for him to pack.

Grandma concentrated and made her eyes tingle as her vampire face came forth and Nathan held around Nisha's back I preparation for violence. Grandma seemed to take no notice of them however, as she used her tongue to test if Stefan's fangs were out. Once she saw they were, she angled the wood to pierce a hole through one end of the wooden plank.

"It's a tool." Nathan commented. "What for?"

Grandma wiped her mouth as her face returned to normal and threaded his rope through the hole she'd created, beginning to wind the rope around the wood and twist it.

"Communication." She answered.

"Communication?" Nisha asked, eyeing the device.

"People have forgotten so much. This is my brummer." Grandma held up to demonstrate and both stared back at her blankly. "So much wisdom lost to your technology." She shook her head and then began to swing the device above her head as though it was a lasso.

They both watched mesmerized by it as it began to emit a strange sound, almost like a musical instrument. As grandma focussed, she sped up or slowed down to change the cadence. Nathan had Goosebumps as he watched. This was almost magical. After a few moments, Grandma slowed the device down and stopped, winding it back up and looking to them amused at their expressions of awe.

"Now. Let's go." She said satisfied and headed back down the hill as Nathan and Nisha looked to each other.

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Stefan had ran, as fast and as hard as he could, to get away from the horror. She'd channelled to him. Channelled! That could mean only one thing…that she was mated – one of his kind. But who was she? Was she even real? He didn't understand. The farther he ran, the more bodies he found though until he fell into a huge crater and landed on his face. He gasped, panting and pulled himself up onto his hands to look around. Mercifully there were no bodies lying in the hole.

He sat up and looked around, fear still clawing at him. He knew he was being watched, every cell in his body knew it. Was this to teach him some kind of lesson?

"Yes, I'm afraid!" He shouted up to the sky, which was dull and grey as though a storm was approaching. "What the hell do you want from me?!"

No one answered this time and he began to calm down and study the hole he was in. It wasn't too deep. He should be able to climb back out without too much difficulty. He stood up, shaking the dirt off of himself and moved to the edge, trying to get a hold to climb out with.

"Is this the best you have? Trapping me in a hole?" He huffed as he tried to get a foothold, when his foot became trapped.

He huffed and looked down to see what was preventing his ascension when he squinted. It looked like…no. He kicked his foot, trying to loosen it when he felt a pull.

He screamed as he realised what it was. A hand. A human hand, grasping at his ankle. He cried out and suddenly he heard sounds of earth moving around him. He looked around frantically as arms and hands began to burst out around him and grab him. He screamed and tried to fight them off, but he was pulled backwards and fell onto his back. Before he had the chance to stand up again, hands were on his limbs, pulling and tearing at him and he fought with every bit of strength he had to get free.

"Help! Help me!" He shouted out in terror.

"Now, now Stefan." The bodiless voice began to speak again as he panted and struggled. "Here I thought you'd like the chance to apologise."

"What?!" He cried out.

"To all of your victims." The voice said matter of factly and Stefan shook his head and screamed. "I know they've been waiting for a long time to hear it."

"No! No!" He screamed as his body was pulled into the earth and silenced.

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Vida wailed and wailed. Finally, she had realised that Stefan was in absentia and she was unhappy and clingy. Damon had tried everything – singing, stories, feeding her but nothing helped. He lay her on her play mat and left the room. He couldn't handle much more screaming and crying. His head throbbed. He sat down on the step outside and put his face in his hands. Vida choked on her tears and continued to scream unhappily.

He had no energy left and he'd tried everything. What was the point? He knew he couldn't handle this alone. He should take her back to Isabella. He stood up, having made up his mind and went back inside. Vida watched him as she choked and he moved around collecting some things for her. He threw them into a bag and bent down behind the crib to find her pacifier, when she stopped crying. He stood up in surprise and looked over to her. She was staring up at something, bringing her legs into her body calmly.

He frowned and watched her. What was she looking at? He looked up to the ceiling but saw nothing of any consequence.

"Dadda?" She chirped and he frowned deeper and slowly walked towards her.

She opened her mouth into a small smile and kicked her legs.

"Vida?" He asked, almost in fear.

She giggled, still looking up and he felt the hairs on his body stand on end. Was Stefan here? In spirit form? If he was, did that mean that he was..? He swallowed bile and tried to breathe. If Stefan was spirit, he would have to be…

Vida giggled again and reached her hands up and Damon felt faint. He collapsed onto his bottom and watched, his heart tearing at the thought that Stefan was dead and was visiting them to say goodbye.

"Stefan…" He croaked, trying not to hyperventilate.

Vida gurned and yawned, becoming quiet and Damon felt a few tears release from his eyes. Vida rubbed her eyes tiredly and seemed to fall asleep.

Stefan? Are you here?

Damon channelled, desperately looking around to see something, anything. Surely if he could communicate with Vida, he could do it with his mate too?

"Stefan don't leave me." Damon begged.

He sat there for half an hour, waiting in hope for some kind of sign, but nothing happened. If Stefan's soul was gone, then it was over. He sagged, feeling empty. Vida was fast asleep peacefully. A streak of anger filled him. Vida might not remember Stefan. She was so little. If Grandma's plan had killed his mate then she was going to pay for it.

He stood up, charged with rage and grabbed Vida's bag. He'd leave her in the care of those he trusted. They'd look after her, raise her and protect her better than he ever could. He lifted her carefully and kissed her head.

"Love you baby girl, but you'll be better off without me." He said honestly.

She flickered her eyelashes but remained asleep. He lay her face into his shoulder and rubbed her back for a few minutes, saying goodbye and then he headed out of the lodge to take her to Ian. Ian would look after her until Anne and Michael could come for her.

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Stefan struggled, inhaling dirt into his mouth as he tried to scream. This couldn't be happening! He could fell all of the bodies buried in the earth around him and they were hungry for him. They wanted a piece of him and he knew he deserved it. He'd killed so many people, so many innocents and he deserved this. He coughed at the dirt in his lungs and mouth and was ready to surrender to his fate when he felt a strong hand grab his wrist. It was much stronger than the others and it began to pull him upwards, back to the surface. The other arms around him grabbed at him fiercely but he began to rise once more and he dared to believe that it was Damon somehow.

Suddenly light became visible and he began to fight the other hands again, to free himself. He blinked dirt out of his eyes and took in a huge breath as he was pulled from the earth and into someone's embrace.

Damon?

He channelled, but was too overwhelmed with coughing and gasping for breath to see his saviour just yet. Strong arms rubbed his back and held him and he felt tears of gratitude fill his eyes. Shrieks and cries began to sound from the earth all around them and he began to panic. All of his victims - screaming in outrage at his escape. They had to get out of here!

The saviour lifted him into his arms and carried him and Stefan found himself looking up like a child into a face he knew. Strange to be carried like this when he was a grown man.

"Father?" He croaked, still coughing and Giuseppe looked down at him worriedly and rocked him slightly as the hole disappeared and became a road.

"Rest son, I have you." His father said. "Your mother won't be happy."

Stefan squinted in confusion and reached up to touch his father's face, to assure himself that he was real, when he saw his own hands. Those weren't the hands of a grown man, they were of a small child. He gasped in fear and looked down at himself, his clothes, touched his face and found a youthful appearance there. He began to pant.

"What's happening to me?" He cried and Giuseppe cooed at him and held him close lovingly.

"Daddy's got you."

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Damon drove out of the camp. Everyone thought he was being selfish. They didn't get it. This was right for her. The best thing. If Stefan was gone then he would die soon anyway. Perhaps the only reason that his body wasn't reacting to it, was because Stefan's body was still technically alive. It must be the reason. He had no intention of going to Anne for blood either. She was too far away in New York, watching over their new home and setting up their new life for them. Their life as a family.

He bit back tears and tried not to think about everything that they wouldn't have. He'd never expected that they really be able to live a nice suburban life anyway, but they would have had some of it – no danger, no Klaus. Vida walking and learning to talk. Sharing those family moments together before life would inevitably crash down on them again. They'd build some kind of ranch, make new friends and learn how to be happy. Now, it was all gone, as though it had been ephemera anyway. Who were they kidding?

He dried his eyes with his jacket cuff and cleared his throat. He wasn't sure where to start looking but he knew who might. Without Stefan and Vida, he would have to let his old self come back out. He'd have to focus on the only other thing that was important – revenge and boy did he want it. Time for old skool Damon to emerge.

She slid his hand into the pocket of his leather jacket – which had been dusty from being under a pile of baby things in the trunk and pulled out a hip flask. He grinned as he swished it around, checking to make sure it wasn't empty. He unscrewed it and poured it into his mouth, swallowing and sighing. No Stefan around or angel baby to have to protect while driving. Damn it all. If he wanted to get loaded and drive then he'd do it. He'd need the courage to get through this.

He slipped it back into his pocket and hit the radio on, sitting back. If he was going to go out, he was going to go out in style!

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"Father!" Stefan beseeched and Giuseppe looked down at him again. "What's happening to me?"

"Don't fight it Stefan. Accept this gift."

"What gift?" He croaked and Giuseppe winked at him.

They walked a little further and suddenly the sun came out, blinding him. Giuseppe leaned down and lay him on grass and he sat up, blinking furiously. He looked around and saw their old family home, just as he remembered it from his human years. He gazed around.

"Where am I?"

"Home." Giuseppe said and hinted over towards the front door.

He looked over and saw his mother again, rushing towards them in distress. He opened his mouth but words failed him.

"My precious boy, oh Stefan! Where have you been?" She cried and gathered him in her arms.

He held her back confused.

"Look at you, my baby!" She fussed, wiping dirt from his face as he stared at her.

Was this the figure that only a short time ago had called him a demon? This was a trick.

"Where am I?" He croaked in disbelief. "Who are you?"

She shed a tear and lifted him up. He grabbed her shoulders, looking at his childlike hands and arms and shook his head in disbelief. She cooed at him and began to hum a tune as she carried him back towards the house.

"Wait, stop..." He struggled not to feel a sense of calmness, safety.

"Hush my angel. Mummy's here." She kissed his head and held him tight and he lay his head on her shoulder, feeling drowsy and unable to argue any longer.

His mother was back and she was going to make everything ok.


	26. Chapter 26

"He took off?" Bonnie crossed her arms in concern, as Isabella tried to console Vida, who was now having a tantrum.

"Yeah. He thinks Stefan's soul is dead." Ian rubbed his eyes and took Vida to bounce her and let her suck on Damon's shirt.

"Why does he think that?" Bonnie frowned.

"He said Stefan's spirit visited Vida and then disappeared." Isabella sat down yawning.

"Is it true? Is Stefan really gone?" Ian asked and she shook her head and chewed her lip.

"I don't think so. I would have felt it, I'm sure." She mumbled.

They all fell silent, watching Vida with heavy hearts as she called out for Damon and cried.

"She knows he's gone. That he might not come back." Isabella said and Bonnie raised her eyebrows.

"He seemed like he was on a one way mission." Ian nodded in agreement.

Bonnie began to pace.

"Is there a way you can find out if Stefan is still alive somewhere?"

"I don't…" she shook her head and exhaled in frustration.

Truth was, she really didn't know where Stefan was. Was he in heaven? Some other dimension? Inside of his own mind?

They all sat down together mournfully. Vida quietened to a gurn and Ian cradled her lovingly, stroking her tears from her cheeks.

"If only you could talk." Ian cooed down at her and she hiccupped and looked up at him.

"Wait." Bonnie frowned, looking towards her. "Does she eat any real food yet?"

Both shook their heads. They hadn't been able to wean her off of mated blood just yet.

"Water? Do you give her water in between feeds?"

"Sometimes." Isabella nodded and Bonnie smiled in relief. "Why?"

"Maybe I can have a look at what she saw. See if it was Stefan." Bonnie stood up and knelt before Ian, asking for permission to hold her.

"How?" Isabella sat forward in intrigue as Ian handed her over.

Vida wriggled and began to cry again and Bonnie rocked her, hushing her as she tried to concentrate.

"Long story." Bonnie answered and focussed, closing her eyes and trying to tap into the earth magic that she'd learned.

If she could follow the water in her cells and get into her brain, she could trace the memory which had scared Damon so much.

Vida cried and struggled, afraid and Isabella began to hum softly to distract her. Ian retrieved a squeaky rubber animal from Damon's bag and handed it to her. She took it with her baby hands and put it into her mouth, chewing and momentarily appeased.

It was strange to watch someone do magic without chanting and they watched in fascination as Bonnie moved her fingers up to Vida's head. Vida became engrossed in making her toy squeak and didn't fuss any longer. A few minutes passed and Vida stopped chewing and gazed up at Bonnie's face.

Ian and Isabella watched. Bonnie slowly seemed to come back to them and rock Vida again, but now Vida was interested in Bonnie's face and dropped her toy.

"Did you see something?" Ian asked and Bonnie nodded.

"Was it Stefan?" Isabella prompted.

"No."

They waited for Bonnie to elaborate but she didn't. She stood up and held Vida back out for Ian, before rubbing her face and pacing slightly.

"I don't know where Stefan is exactly, but he's still alive. I can feel that and Vida can too."

"Yeah?" Ian asked and she nodded.

"So it wasn't Stefan in spirit form?"

"No."

"Then who was it? Damon said there was definitely a presence. That Vida knew the spirit."

"That's the problem." Bonnie chewed her lip. "I have no idea who she was."

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Beth smiled to herself, stretching out on her bed as she heard the sounds of Toby giggling. Life was good, or it had been so far. Toby had gone from being a fussy, hard work baby to being happy and calm.

She yawned and got out of bed, grabbing her robe as she checked her hair in the mirror. They had been staying with Klaus since they'd escaped with their lives, from Mystic Falls and Klaus had kept true to his word. He hadn't hatched any revenge plans or tried to force a connection between them both. He seemed changed by everything that had happened. They were becoming closer too. Toby helped with that. He adored Klaus and although it worried her that Toby may think of Klaus as his father, she couldn't help but be happy because her little man was.

She and Klaus hadn't spoken much about Jack. It was still too raw for both of them to. They both knew that he was a topic they couldn't dodge forever though, not with Toby growing and learning so quickly. Soon they'd need to start telling him about his real daddy and she wasn't sure how that was going to affect Klaus.

She left her bedroom and descended the grand staircase. For a long time she and Jack had been on the run from Klaus and hadn't had the luxury of grand homes. Now her running was over and she could breathe and relax. She walked down the stairs feeling like a movie star as her robe floated around her and Klaus walked into the hallway cradling Toby to him. She beamed at him as he glowed at the sight of her.

"Hope he didn't get you up too early." She smiled as she approached and took Toby from his arms and Klaus gave a small smile. "Did you wake up uncle Klaus?" She cooed and Toby squealed and clapped his hands.

"His senses are sharper today. He saw much farther than yesterday." Klaus said admiringly and she chuckled and lifted Toby up, placing his face in at her shoulder as she bounced him.

"I think it depends what the target is, huh?" She joked.

"A hawk." Klaus folded his arms pleased and she whistled impressed. "He saw it before even I did."

"Has he eaten yet?"

"A whole bowl." Klaus nodded. "He fed himself actually."

"That's my boy." She beamed.

They had been weaning Toby off of blood and it had been difficult to say the least. With Klaus here with her, they'd been trying to learn more of what is was to be wolf and had thought it best to try and encourage Toby's wolf senses and eating human food was one of them. It was vastly improving Toby's awareness.

Toby gurned, looking up to the ceiling and Beth and Klaus continued to chat as they walked through to the lounge.

"We should call the others. It's been a week now. They may be back to normal." Beth suggested as she took a seat at the table and sat Toby on her knee, bouncing him.

Klaus sighed a little but nodded as he took a seat across from her.

"True, the heat must be over by now." He agreed.

"Do you think they were ok?" Beth asked sincerely.

It had been Anne and Michael's first proper heat together and they had called Klaus for assistance in their fertility trigger. Stefan had seemed satisfied when Klaus had compelled it into his mind and so the other mates had discussed having the same opportunity. The only couple not on board were Karl and Monique, for obvious reasons. After suffering so great a loss of their cubs through the spell, Monique was eager to see whether they could get pregnant again. Of course, they were all grimly aware of what a difficult, if not dangerous test it would be to try and birth mated babies again – Beth and Stefan had gone through such pain and their babies had only just survived.

Klaus of course, had offered to help ensure survival of any others born but that meant that the mates had to put their trust in him completely and not everyone trusted Klaus as Beth did.

Toby giggled and reached above him suddenly and Beth looked up to the ceiling in surprise.

"What you doing little man?" She chuckled and bounced him but he was absorbed in the ceiling.

Klaus followed his gaze, his eyes narrowing as he watched and Beth chuckled unsure and looked to him.

"Is there an insect up there, little hawk eye?" She asked, trying to get Toby to look at her but he ignored her.

Toby giggled again and yawned, rubbing his eyes and relaxing back against her knee again as though nothing had happened and Klaus and Beth continued to study the ceiling.

"What was all that about?" Beth asked, still slightly amused and Klaus felt a few hairs on his body rise.

He drew a fake smile of reassurance for Beth and excused himself under the pretext of getting some wine. He walked through to his study to look at his books. He'd been studying all of the legends on the original wolf, trying to find out everything about where she'd come from, what kind of magic she had used or had access to. He'd found a lot of clippings of information here and there, but no concrete picture of who she'd been as a person.

Beth would say that his endeavours to study Grandma and the spell they'd all been subjected too were water under the bridge, but he'd lived long enough to know that you always had to be prepared for enemies returning, for magic loopholes. He sat down in his chair and exhaled, steepling his fingers to his mouth. He knew when there were spirits present normally. He'd seen his fair share and he knew the look of those who had the gift of sight. Toby clearly was one of them. The look on his face was indicative of seeing something that they couldn't.

He couldn't ignore this little episode. It meant something. He just needed to figure out what, to avoid Beth becoming worried.

Logically, if Toby could see spirits, Vida may also be able to.

He sighed and chewed his lip. Stefan had made his feelings clear. He wanted nothing to do with Klaus. Damon would inevitably follow suit. If Vida was experiencing spirits too though…it could mean something. An attack from grandma once more perhaps? Nothing could be ruled out.

What are you up to?

Beth channelled and he was roused from his reverie and smiled. Channelling. Who would have ever imagined that he would be able to channel? That he'd be special as the mates were. True he wasn't fully one of them – he'd never mated, but thanks to the spell, it had brought him close enough to them all to share this unique gift.

Perhaps he was letting his paranoia get the better of him. It was his normal reaction to a threat, but was there a threat? Perhaps Toby simply had the gift. He nodded to himself and closed his book. He'd reserve his judgement for now and simply observe Toby. No need to contact the mates unless he had to, especially not Stefan. In time Stefan would come around, but not right now.

Bring some toast, uncle Klaus.

He grinned and left the room to re-join them

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"You see, if I take this right here…" Damon smouldered at the woman propped up against the bar, "and I tuck it behind here…"

The woman was clearly inebriated but still vibrating with lust for him as he demonstrated the only magic trick he knew. The woman leaned nearer to his mouth as he grinned and flicked his eyelashes at her, when he felt a hand squeeze his shoulder.

"Damon Salvatore. Long time no see." A voice boomed behind him and he pulled back from the drunken woman, giving her a wink as he turned his head and looked innocently to his new guest.

"Miss me?" He charmed, smirking and the woman crossed her arms and gave him a smirk equally as patronising. "And here I thought I was the best you ever had Chelle." He pouted.

The woman at the bar glared at Damon's acquaintance and slid her hand up his thigh. He turned back to look at the drunkard and smiled again.

"Maybe later. Here, these are yours." He fished her panties out of his jacket sleeve and handed them to her, standing up. "Her next one's on me."

He laid a bill on the counter of the bar and the woman sagged in disappointment at his departure.

He walked towards the entrance with his new friend, smiling confidently until they were outside.

"Just how drunk are you?" She pushed him against the wall and he put his hands up in mock surrender. "You remember the last time you came around here!"

"Chelle, come on!" He pouted again. "I was hungry. Man's gotta eat."

"Yeah? Well man better shut up or he'll end up being dinner this time. Come here." She dragged him towards her car.

He slipped inside and turned to look at her, instantly losing his alcoholic appearance. He had to be careful here. He'd made a fair few enemies in his time and when he'd lived here 30 years ago, he'd made more than a few. That was while he had no humanity, no feeling, no Stefan.

Michelle climbed into the driver's seat and huffed, looking around. He studied her. Her red hair was still red, despite time passing, but had taken on much more of an afro-Caribbean appearance than before. He'd always been reminded of a Viking when looking at her in her youth – all fire and curls. He'd spared her because he'd been intrigued by how much power she may have. He'd known she would be useful to him someday.

"What are you grinning at?" She snapped and he chuckled.

"You still have fire Chelle."

She huffed but couldn't suppress a small smile as she stared out onto the road.

"What are you doing back here Damon? Seriously?" She asked calmly and he gave her an innocent smile again.

"Just passing through. Thought you could make life a bit more interesting while I'm here."

"Your kind of interesting gets people killed." She pointed out.

"True." He nodded and sighed dramatically.

"I heard you have your humanity on now. I heard rumours." She turned to study him now.

"Didn't realise my fan club extended this far." He smiled and she studied him from head to toe.

"What do you really want? You know I can't allow you to hunt here. Not after last time."

He chewed his lip subtly. Could he trust her? Was she even still the same person he'd known and called friend? He leaned towards her, widening his pupils.

"I need you to get me information." He compelled and she paused for a second before smirking at him.

"Vervain, you idiot." She sat back from him and he huffed and frowned. "What's so important that you have to compel me to help you? Who are you trying to kill?"

"I'm not trying to kill anyone. I'm looking for someone of a particular variety."

"Who? If you're still trying to find your evil brother…"

"Not him." He interrupted swiftly.

The last time he'd seen her he was still on project make-Stefan' and he'd lost track of him. She had done a locator spell that had led him straight to him.

"Then who?" She narrowed her eyes at him.

"I need a traveller. Any one of them will do."

"A traveller?" She chuckled and frowned at him. "They fly solo. What would you need one for?"

"Just a little advice."

"You realise how dangerous those people are? They hate vampires, witches…hell they hate everyone who isn't one of them." She warned and he nodded and rolled his eyes.

"Obviously."

"If it's magic you want from them, it won't go down well for you. Their magic is…" she paused and shook her head, looking out of the windscreen again as she thought.

"I need a traveller to undo old magic – one of their kinds doing." He admitted as he watched the wheels in her head turn.

He had to convince her to help him or he would be out of leads.

"Undo?" She asked and he nodded, growing desperate but keeping his cool. "What do I get out of this?"

He grinned and reached into jacket, pulling out a small bottle of liquid. She gawked and reached out to take it from him when he tucked it back into his pocket again.

"You kept it, all this time?" She croaked, unable to believe it and he nodded nonchalantly.

"Always knew it'd come in handy." He remarked.

"And if I help you, you'll give it to me?"

"Scouts honour." He said and she considered it, her eyes ablaze with possibilities.

"All I can do is make a few calls. I can't promise that someone will meet with you."

"Oh, and you were doing so well." He said sarcastically, opening the door to exit the vehicle.

She called on him, rushing out of her door and catching him at the hood as he smiled confidently.

"Please Damon, you know how important that potion is to me." She beseeched and he dropped the smile and nodded. "I'll do whatever I can, I promise you that."

"Payment in full once I have a happily little traveller standing in front of me." He dangled the bottle at her again and she sighed in reservation and nodded. "You have 12 hours."

She nodded again and he sauntered back towards the bar, ruffling his hair back into bad-boy style as he walked confidently inside.


	27. Chapter 27

He'd almost forgotten what the summers were like as a child. The heat, the humidity, the sound of the servants singing in the gardens as they tended them and got their hands dirty in the soil. It was such a vivid memory and yet it had escaped him. He turned over in his bed and sighed, relaxed. It was so good to be home - to be back to normal.

"Stefan sir? Your mother bids you!"

He opened his eyes and smiled, stretching. Mother was home again. He sat up, in time to hear a knock at his door. He yawned and called out.

"Come on young sir, can't keep the lady waiting can we?" His maid Rosa shuffled in under the weight of all of her garments and lifted him from the bed, tickling him as she did.

He laughed and squealed until she set him down onto the ground to look up at her.

"Now, your father is due home today. You must be at your best and no sass, you hear?" She waved a finger at him and he nodded politely.

She exited to grab a wash basin and he chewed on his shirt sleeves until she came back. He scrunched up his nose at the sight of the soap and water.

"Now, don't you be giving me sass mister. Important people are coming to dinner today and you must be the height of respectable. Strip." She ordered and he grumbled but complied.

She washed him, fussing over the dirt between his nails and on his knees. He'd been playing with some of the servant children yesterday and had been learning the joys of muck and dirt. It was fun to be somewhat unkempt to see his mother's reaction afterwards. He giggled when she dried him down and stood back looking at him.

"It'll have to do until your bath next week. Now, let's get you dressed." She moved to his closet and pulled out some of his good clothing and he gaped that he should be allowed to wear them.

"Where is father?" He asked meekly, swinging his arms from side to side as she fussed getting his underwear free from his chest.

He scowled as she approached him with it. He had to wear underwear today? Geez, today must really be important.

"He has been making a new business arrangement of sorts and he will be returning with his new people. We must all be at our best." She dressed him, pulling his arms and legs into sleeves and smacking his hands when he tried to investigate his new garments.

Soon enough he was dressed and she was studying him, rubbing him down and fingering through his hair.

"Now. Head up, you will be the man of this house one day."

"When?" He asked excitedly as only a child can.

"When your father decides you are ready." She smiled. "When you prove you can be respectable and worthy of the honour."

Stefan sucked his thumb, thinking on that and she took his hand and escorted him down towards the breakfast room, where his mother awaited nervous and fidgeting.

The servants pulled out his chair for him at the table – since there were no other children in the household who ate at the table with the master and mistress, Stefan had been bidden the honour of eating at the table with the adults and so had required a higher chair. Rosa lifted him onto it as his mother smiled and patted his hand.

"So handsome." She beamed and Stefan blushed innocently. "Today is an exciting day my darling."

"Why?" He chirped, trying to reach for a bread roll on the table.

"Today we are going to meet your fiancee my darling. Today, your future begins."

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"Eve!" Nisha called and Grandma stopped walking finally and turned to look at her in surprise at the use of her name.

Nathan and Nisha stopped walking gratefully and breathed in fatigue.

"We need to rest. We don't have the strength of that body." Nisha explained.

They'd been walking for nearly 5 hours, with Grandma's refusal to get back into a vehicle of any kind and they were ailing.

Grandma chewed her lip and studied them. They did appear fatigued and hungry. She focussed on her own body and felt a slight indication of hunger also and she nodded begrudgingly. She wanted to get to her aide as quickly as possible, but perhaps it was wise to take care of this body's need lest they cause her discomfort later.

She nodded and they seemed to sag and sit down on the ground almost immediately. Nathan handed Nisha some water from a flask and she gulped it down and handed it back to him. Grandma surveyed the area. It would suffice for camping she supposed. They'd made good progress getting through the woods so far. The speed this body was capable of was fantastic and highly agreeable.

She took a seat herself and removed the backpack she'd been given, opening it and pulling one of Damon's bottles of blood out. Her eyes tingled in that tell-tale sign as soon as she smelled the liquid and she marvelled all over again at the smell. Nisha and Nathan talked amongst themselves and she sat down to drink and savour it.

The first gulp was as intense as the very first one and she rolled her eyes into her head as she swallowed. How could blood taste so good? How was it possible? Was it just Stefan's vampire taste buds or was this blood really that much more potent and tasty?

She shook her head in wonder and took another sip, her whole body relaxing, as Nathan began to make a tent to shelter them from the night air. Ever resourceful and so full of life. He'd continue her line well if she could just get him away from the vampire mates. He needed to be with another wolf, a human one. Enough tampering with her blood already!

Grandma lay down and looked up at the stars, setting Damon's blood down next to her as she smiled to herself and closed her eyes. Her friends would have gotten her message. They'd know she was coming and in Stefan's powerful body. Finally she'd end this. She drifted to sleep so gradually she was unaware of it until she felt her body curl in pleasure. She opened her eyes as Stefan's manhood ejaculated and she realised that she been touching it as she slept. She pulled her hand out from his jeans horrified and looked over to Nathan. Both humans were in the tent and sleeping. Thank god.

She wiped her hands on the denim and looked down at Stefan's body. How disgusting. Evidently she'd been touching Stefan's manhood and had an orgasm. She wrinkled her nose and sat up, inspecting the fluid on her jeans. She chewed her lip as she considered this opportunity carefully. She was a woman, always had been and this was all new. She unbuttoned the jeans and looked inside of them, touching the still swollen flesh there and closing her eyes as a shiver of desire squeezed her stomach. Such a sensitive organ.

She lightly traced the skin, watching it jerk in her excitement and she licked her lips and formed her fist around it. She stroked it a few times and shivered. God it felt good. It had been such a long time since she'd felt anything and this was wondrous. She sped up a little, breathing faster and clenched her stomach at the build-up of sensation. Any moment now, it would come. She exhaled and tensed her whole body as the release made her open her mouth wide.

She lay back down breathing and left her hand inside of the jeans as she recovered. That was amazing. She'd have to do that again. She smiled and closed her eyes again, relaxed and comfortable before falling asleep once again.

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Damon awoke surrounded by empty bourbon bottles and he groaned.

"Stefan?" He whispered, forgetting and then sat up abruptly, looking around when he remembered where he was.

"Shit!" He gasped and grabbed his jeans and a t-shirt.

He'd given Michelle 12 hours to find a traveller and it was almost time. He grabbed his cell phone, checking for a text and saw a missed call from her. He shook his head annoyed with himself at having gotten so drunk and re-dialled.

"It awakes!" She said sarcastically and a little irritated. "Did you drink the whole bar?"

"Old habits." He returned her sarcasm but didn't have the energy to play the game right now. "You got what I asked you for?"

"Yes. Can you come to my old place?" She asked.

"Your old place? Thought you were scared of travellers. You wanna invite them in for tea?"

"No dipshit, I can protect myself better here." She snipped and he thought on that as he pulled his shoes on. "Just hurry up so I can get him out of here. Remember our deal."

He hung up without replying and looked to his face in the mirror. The motel was the grubbiest he'd ever been in but at least it had a mirror. He ran his hands through his hair, grimacing at the pallor of his skin. He needed to feed. He had to look strong and confident today. Still, the taste of Stefan's blood might make him feel…

He sighed and rationalised it in his mind. He had to hold it together. He couldn't go to a traveller looking like this and expect to come across as someone not to mess with. He had to strike a deal. He just wasn't sure what he had to bargain with. He'd have to just infiltrate the traveller's camp afterwards and catch someone off guard – use them as a trade for magic. It usually worked. Then again, how would he know if the spell worked right away? He might have to stash the human somewhere until he knew the spell had been successful and then leave instructions as to the victim's whereabouts.

He wasn't sure, to put it lightly, but he was on a time limit. If Stefan's soul was dead, then he was on borrowed time before he would die too. He was sure of it. Stefan's body may be alive but being mated was about two souls joining too and if one was gone…

He refrained from drinking Stefan's blood and jumped in his car, heading along the back roads to Michelle's cottage. She was a real dreamer and loved to play the forest child, natural witch bullshit. She was always about having the right look or living somewhere that looked like something out of a storybook. He'd been sure she was nothing more than fan girl of witchcraft when he'd met her because of it. She even cooked her food in a cauldron!

When he'd met Bonnie, he'd know right away she had power. Natural power from the earth. Bonnie was a real, bonefide witch in ways Michelle could only ever hope to be. Still, there was just enough witch in Michelle to aid in her pursuit of others who actually could channel proper magic. Michelle in herself was only capable of the basics like doing locator spells and some tricks of perception – something she'd spent a lot of her adulthood trying to improve upon. So, yeah. She could do some magic but she was no witch, not really. Not enough for his purposes now.

He drove up nearby to her cottage and parked the car. He'd have a look around first and make sure he wasn't walking into a trap. He walked around in the forest, listening and tuning in his new wolf senses, feeling as though he could feel every breathe of life around him, even in the trees. Being a wolf was so much more than dealing with the heat and other habits he'd come to know. Being partially alive again was…invigorating. It wouldn't last much longer so he should savour it.

After a few minutes of checking around he felt more relaxed and approached the cottage. He chapped on the door and waited, pulling his leather jacket downwards and smoothing it out. Michelle opened the door and he smiled widely, calmly.

She stepped out of the way and let him walk inside to the lounge where there was a man sitting, looking slightly Romanian in origin. Damon stood taller and studied him.

"You wanted a traveller." The man said matter of factly and Damon gave a nod. "Why?"

"Right to the point aren't you?" Damon smirked and took a seat directly across from him and the man studied him.

"My name is Marcus. You are Damon Salvatore."

"5 points." Damon smiled again and crossed his legs casually. "How do you know who I am?"

"I don't." Was the blunt answer and the man hinted towards Michelle who was watching them nervously.

Damon gave a nod of understanding and exhaled.

"I've been looking for a traveller to undo a traveller spell."

The man blinked at him and leaned forward slightly.

"What kind of spell?"

"An old one, about 1000 years old." Damon said and the traveller looked to Michelle for a second. "Question is, are you the right kind of traveller or do I need someone more…senior?"

"There is no one more senior." The man said showing a hint of irritation.

"Oh I doubt that. What age are you…35?"

The man sat back in his chair and gave a chuckle, which had Damon's skin prickling with unease.

"This body yes. How astute."

"How old then?" Damon held his breath.

This guy wasn't the body in front of him evidently. He was speaking to a much older soul who had taken possession of the body, much in the same way grandma had taken Stefan's. Did that mean that she was still using traveller's magic? It seemed unlikely considering she wasn't one of them, so how would she be able to access that?

"Not as old as you, but by our standards that means little. Now, vampire…what spell?"

Damon bit his bottom lip. He was really risking everything here, but what other choice did he have?

"Have you ever heard of the vampire mates?" He asked, his heart beating faster in anxiety and the man's whole demeanour changed.

The man stood up, looking to Michelle.

"Leave." He commanded and Michelle frowned in confusion at being asked to leave her own home.

Damon looked to her in surprise and she opened her mouth to retort when Marcus pointed to her front door commandingly again, with eyes burning like fire. She backed away, casting one last look at Damon before leaving hurriedly. Damon sat perfectly still for a few seconds as Marcus paced slowly and came back around to be seated again.

"You know of the mates?" He said and Damon nodded, holding himself tight.

"Are you one of them?" The guy began to study every detail of Damon's appearance now, searching for some visible clue and finding none.

"Not anymore."

"Anymore?" Marcus raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"My mate has died. I don't have long."

Marcus nodded and exhaled in vexation.

"Why have you come looking for me?" Marcus asked.

"The spell that your people cast on the original wolf's bloodline so that her offspring would carry a special gene…"

"Yes." Marcus prompted.

"I want you to break it."

"What do you mean?" Marcus sat back in surprise.

"Make sure it ends with the mates still in existence. Don't allow anymore generations to have it."

"There will be no more. You are vampire." Marcus reasoned and Damon swallowed hard, trying not to divulge anything that would give away the fact that the mates were now fertile.

"Not all of our bloodline are. There are still some human, some wolf."

"So why do you care?" Marcus crossed his legs, mirroring Damon's posture now.

"Because while the spell continues to pop out little potential wolves, she can suck them dry and use their energy to bring herself back to this plane. She's not the least homicidal of dinner guests."

Marcus gave a chuckle.

"What are you talking about?"

"You don't know?" Damon huffed, amazed. "How have you not kept tabs? She was almost here a few months ago, stripping the energy out of a whole bloodline to bring herself across again and you seriously missed it?"

Marcus grew serious, not blinking as he stared at him, perhaps trying to discover whether he was being truthful and Damon exhaled and stood up, pacing.

"Guess traveller magic doesn't normally have as many consequences as real magic huh?" Damon bated him and the man grew angry in expression. "So you sleep on the job?"

"That spell was cast 1000 years ago vampire." He said tersely but with control. "No one cares about the fates of a few mongrels and vampires anymore."

"And what about you guys?" Damon stopped in front of him. "You think that once she's had her fill of revenge on Klaus and sucked most of us dry, that she won't decide she wants to stay here permanently?"

Marcus stared him out.

"And how will she do that, other than to turn to the original source of the magic. You guys are a supernatural battery more than our bodies are. You think she won't seek you out too?"

"We are not her enemy. It's your nature and your kinship to Klaus that is in her interest. It's nothing to do with us." He replied calmly once more and Damon felt his urgency rise.

"Keep telling yourself that." Damon said in a grave tone.

Marcus became thoughtful and fell silent and Damon took his seat again and watched him. He had to think of some motivation for the traveller's to help him. He had to make sure that Vida and Toby couldn't be used by grandma ever again and that their children would no longer be connected to this disaster. If he was going to die and leave his angel to grow up, he wanted to make sure it'd be safe for her to do so and safe for her future children too. They could never change the fact that were the original wolf's descendants, but he could ensure that they'd no longer carry a gene which could turn them in witch food. It might mean that they'd no longer be able to mate like he and Stefan had, but that worth the risk because they'd be free to live without fear.

"What would I get out of this?" Marcus stroked his chin as he spoke.

The big question.

"What do you want?" He hated being in so vulnerable a position to have to ask this question.

"Why are you so desperate for this to happen? If you're dying, what does it matter to you?"

"I live with a pack, some of them are blood kin to me. I want them free of her." He said confidently, but he could see that that wasn't good enough for Marcus. "And I want that bitch to burn the fiery pits of hell without a ladder to climb out from. I want her stuck forever on the other side."

Marcus gave a small nod. That was more like it.

"I'll need time to prepare."

"I don't have time." Damon said dangerously.

"You'll have to find it then. A spell of this nature will involve intense ritual and preparation." Marcus stood up and Damon huffed and gripped the sides of his chair.

Marcus straightened his clothing thoughtfully.

"I need your blood too, a lot of it."

Damon glared at him in warning.

"Do you want me to break the spell or not?"

Damon clenched his jaw but nodded.

"Something like this will hurt. You're asking me to rip it out of all of you."

Damon looked nervous and Marcus exhaled.

"You won't lose your bonds but any children born after this to the wolves and human potentials, will be normal. They won't be able to mate like you have. They'll simply be normal wolves or humans."

"Understood."

Marcus moved to walk away when Damon reached out and grabbed his arm tight.

"What's the price?"

"I haven't decided yet." Marcus said plainly. "Wait for my call."

Marcus ripped his arm from Damon's grip and left the cottage. Damon closed his eyes and tried to breathe. That guy was raw power. He could sense it and it spooked him a little. Bonnie exuded power but her intentions were always good. This guy…his intentions were dubious at best. Nothing to do now but wait and hope he could pay whatever the guy wanted.

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	28. Chapter 28

Warm tongue caressing. Full, soft lips desperately massaging his. Her loins alive with desire and heat, energy and love. Hands stroking and caressing his skin as though his skin was made of silk. Love. Being loved, gently and with such adoration.  
She stirred, cupping herself through her jeans as her body responded.

Hair falling against her cheek. She opened her eyes to look up. Raven hair, curling a little at the ends as her lover perspired. She reached up to touch it as she felt him enter, although something was different than before. Something was strange…Lips kissing and whispers of love. She relaxed and returned them, feeling like the most prized thing on the planet.

Moving inside of her body – the perfect exclamation of devotion, but it wasn’t like it had been before. Why did it feel different? Why was her lover inside of her in that place and not the other? Why choose this cavity? She ran her fingers into the hair of her partner, tugging a little and tilting the lover’s face upwards so she could bite his neck and taste his sweat trickling there. Blue eyes glowed at her and teeth sharpened as she felt a burning begin in her stomach. The smell of his skin, the lure of his blood was intoxicating.

“Stefan…” Her lover whispered encouragingly.

She sat up suddenly, waking and holding down the erection. She panted a little in both fear and surprise and shook her head. What had that been? How? She’d spent so little time with Damon. To have a sex dream about him seemed a little odd. She clutched Stefan’s manhood, pleased by the pleasant sensation of squeezing it and tried to collect herself. It had seemed so real, like a memory, but that was impossible. Stefan was gone, receded somewhere into oblivion and if she could help it, he’d stay that way forever. She shook her head again.

Perhaps she needed to vent this frustration after all. The mates were highly sexed – she’d seen to that part of their nature. It ran in the blood of wolves to have higher sex drives anyway, but before she’d been killed, she’d needed to ensure that sex was an integral part of her bloodline’s activities. She’d known that Klaus would be volatile in maturity and she’d had to make sure that her offspring would reproduce regularly and often so that they’d become so far diluted from his knowledge, that if he ever discovered he had living kin, he’d never find them all, plus the more people with the mating gene in them, the more power she had to draw from.

She never expected that she’d actually have to be in one of these bodies, especially with a vampire curse also. If only she’d been able to take over Nathan instead, that would have been preferable because then she’d simply be what she had been before – albeit male.

She was distracted from her thoughts by Nathan emerging from the tent and stretching. So odd to see a man and a woman sleep in a tent together without a coupling. She sniffed discretely in his direction as he gave her a quick flick of his jaw in acknowledgement of her. No sex. They really had slept next to each other and not had sex in that tent. She gave a small smirk of confusion.

She continued to watch as Nathan set a camp fire and retrieved an assortment of metal objects from his backpack. What was he doing? Grandma sat up in curiosity, watching Nathan come and go. He placed some strong smelling powder into a metal pot and added some water, summoning flames from the fire to heat it. The smell that followed was inviting and heavenly. Not quite like Damon’s blood, but inviting still. Grandma licked her lips and sniffed.

“You want some coffee?” Nathan asked, noticing her enjoyment of the smell and she frowned at him.

“Food?” She asked and he shook his head, a little surprised.

“To drink.”

“Yes.” Grandma nodded, wondering if this body ate food as well as blood and Nathan almost seemed to perceive of her thinking.

“Stefan loves coffee.”

Grandma said nothing in response and watched as Nathan averted his eyes, sadly and returned to making the item. Grandma stood up, realising that she still had an erection. She rearranged her garments and squeezed it again as she tried to walk normally. Nathan didn’t look up but yet he noticed.

“It’ll relax. Just give it a few minutes.”

“What?” Grandma asked.

“Morning wood.” Nathan smirked but didn’t look at her. “It’s normal to wake up with an erection.”

Grandma felt blush spread across her face and she cleared her throat. How awful to have this affliction every morning. She had no idea that it was an automatic reaction. Her husband and latterly fathers to her children, had simply been ready to engage in more sex the next morning, she thought due to her presence – if she stayed that long. Towards the end, she had been more interested in collecting as much seed as possible to birth her clan before she was murdered. She’d scarce learned the names of the men who contributed, only leaving their children with them once she’d given birth. She’d never been able to keep the children as she’d known they’d also be killed by association, so she’d returned them to their fathers as quickly as possible so they’d been spread far and wide and safe from harm.

She sat down beside the camp fire and sniffed deeply again.

“Do you remember the taste of food?” Nathan asked her now.

“No.” She admitted. 

She hadn’t given it much thought really. Her focus had simply been on getting into this body, killing Klaus and then allowing herself to return to the other side where she could find peace.

Nathan gave a genuine smile and poured some of the liquid into a small tin cup. He handed it out to her and she took it from him. The smell was powerful, the liquid almost black and thick.

“You might want to put some sug…” Nathan began when she took a sip and spat it out in surprise. “Sugar and milk maybe.” Nathan chuckled and indicated to the other ingredients.

Grandma grimaced and looked to him for aid and he took her cup back and added a little milk and sugar. He had come so equipped for camping. How had he known to bring these things? She scrutinized him as he stirred it and tasted a little to make sure it was ok, adding a little more water. He handed it back to her and she took it, sniffing carefully this time before taking a sip. The taste exploded in her mouth and she swallowed carefully. Much improved from the foulness of the last taste. She smiled gratefully and Nathan smiled back, but looked a little melancholy.

She tilted her head at that expression and he straightened his face again cautiously and took a seat to fill his own cup.

“Stefan likes coffee.” Grandma said and Nathan gave a silent nod. “You know what he likes in his cup?”

Nathan looked to her unsure and she raised an eyebrow. He returned to making his own and she sipped it again. There was feeling here. She’d known there was affection between her young wolf progeny and the mates but there was more to it.

“Does Stefan know of your habits so well?”

Nathan took a sip and frowned at her.

“What do you mean?”

“In the beginning of the spell, you were drawn together.” She commented and Nathan tightened.

“Because you locked us in the library while he was in heat!” He spat, disgusted and she took another sip as she watched him try to control himself again.

Silence followed. 

“I wanted him for you.” Grandma said casually, flicking her eyes up to him once more to check his reaction.

“What are you talking about?” He tried to seem uninterested.

“I ensured you two were together. I had that force field put there to allow you both to reset the balance.”

Nathan looked at her outraged and angry, but he didn’t speak.

“Had you two produced a child together, I would have spared it.”

He scoffed in hatred, his eyes beginning to burn. She was losing him, she had to try and make him understand what she’d been trying to do for him, for everyone.

“Your child would have been pure bred wolf of my line with Stefan’s strength and power. It would have been strong enough to counter Klaus when it grew, in case I failed to destroy him and if Klaus was gone, then it would have been the strongest wolf, an alpha. It would help our people rid the world of vampires.”

“You sound insane.” Nathan said, perplexed and unwilling to consider what she was saying. 

“I so hoped Stefan’s child was yours, I allowed it to grow when all along it was another demon.” She sighed.

Nathan stood up abruptly and walked away from the camp. She watched him walk away but didn’t follow him.

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“Stefan!” Stefan halted in fear at his father’s wrath and looked up at him sheepishly. “What have I told you about visiting your mother? She is ill! She must not be disturbed!”

Stefan paled as his father’s face turned red with anger.

“Do I need to get my belt before you will listen to me boy?”

“No sir.” He squeaked.

Surely father wouldn’t beat him. He’d never done it before, always simply threatened, but lately…

“Go!” Giuseppe ordered and Stefan hesitated for a moment, hearing his mother weep from within her bedroom.

Giuseppe looked at him commandingly and he ran down the hall and down the stairs to the garden. His heart thundered and his eyes filled with tears. He looked around, unsure where to seek refuge when he saw Miss Flora in the field with some of the other servants. His heart jumped and he ran towards her for solace, falling as he tripped over his untied shoe laces and crying out as he did so. All of the emotion building up inside of him began to pour out and he bawled, wiping his split lip and the muck from his cheek.

A strong pair of caramel coloured arms wound around him and lifted him up. He cried into her shoulder, smelling her sweet scent as she cooed at him. She bounced him as though he was a younger infant and he wrapped his arms around her neck.

“Little master, I got you.” She said soothingly, carrying him away from the house to where the servant children were playing.

Stefan continued to sniffle and she sat him down on a rock and wiped his face with her handkerchief and tried to make him smile. He hiccupped a few times and wiped his eyes. She distracted him, trying to show him how to tie his laces for himself for next time and he watched, occasionally hiccupping.

“You try it now.” She offered, untying them again and he shook his head. “Come on now. A master has to learn how to do these things himself.”

He bent down and tried to copy her, with her guidance and managed to get them to knot.

“It’s a start.” Flora smiled encouragingly and he gave a small smile. “Thomas, Master Stefan needs to have some fun.”  
She called on the other children and they rushed over in a group. 

He smiled as they beckoned him to join their game of hide and seek. His pain forgotten, he jumped up with competitive adrenaline and began to run into the family grounds with them, leaving Flora standing behind looking up to his mother’s bedroom window.

They played for a while, laughing and teaming up on the slowest of the group, William. William had a big appetite and figure to go with it and was always the finder – never able to tag them even if they were found. Still, William always cried eventually and ran back to Flora, who then made them swap over. Even though William was always the first caught, he seemed to be appeased by being allowed to have a different role in the game. Thomas was the finder in this round and he could run like the wind! Stefan knew he had to find a really special hiding place this time.

He chuckled to himself as he dove amongst some high grass and looked around. The family cemetery was near. He wasn’t allowed to be there, father had warned that some of the older stones were crumbling and he may be hurt if one fell on him, but it did seem like the right place to hide. The other children had been brought up with some strange ideas and superstitions (according to father) and they would probably not come looking for him in here.

He grinned at his plan and looked up for Thomas to await his chance. Thomas ran towards someone else’s hiding spot and Stefan made his move, dashing into the graveyard and throwing himself down behind a large stone. His heart pounded as he heard Thomas call out teasingly to him and he smiled widely. No way he’d find him here. The stone was so big, it clearly hid his small body. Sometimes he was thankful his body was still quite small. His father had begun to comment on his diet, making the servants give him more oats and grains to eat to make him grow faster. All the men on father’s side had been tall and broad. Still, as mother defended, Stefan was only 8 years old and he had plenty of time to become the towering man his father expected.

A small bug landed on Stefan’s hand and he shook it to shoo it away when he heard the other children scream as they raced back to the neutral point. He looked around the stone to see and chuckled, watching Thomas running around in circles to tag them. They’d totally tag teamed him. Stefan sat back behind the stone and waited. Thomas was so fast and confident all the time that he got cocky. Stefan planned to make him give up because he couldn’t find him and then rub it in his face later.  
He pulled at his shoe laces, struggling to untie them from his own knots when he heard Thomas call for supper. He paused, listening acutely. Yeah right, he wasn’t going to be fooled into giving away his current location that easily! He chuckled and continued to untie his laces again. When he got them untied, he then tried to copy Flora’s instructions again. It was as though she was a magician! How was this possible? It had to be magic.

He was so consumed by his efforts that he forgot about the game and looked up when he realised he hadn’t heard the others laugh for a while. He tuned his ears in. Nothing, just the wind blowing through the grass. He slowly, peeked around the stone, carefully awaiting Thomas jumping out to tag him, but no one moved. He sat scanning the area. They could all be in on it, trying to catch him off-guard. 

He waited for five minutes and became aware of the wind getting cooler. He rubbed his arms as his teeth chattered. If this was a trick, they were playing it well. His stomach rumbled. He looked around again, beginning to realise that indeed, supper might have been called and they were gone. He slowly stood up and looked around. No one in sight. His stomach clenched. He realised where he was. He was standing in a graveyard with dead bodies all around him, on his own! He looked around gulping. What if they jumped out of their graves and grabbed him – he’d heard tales of creatures in the night. His heart began to thunder and he began to back away from the large tombs. Each became more ominous and threatening the farther away he positioned himself and he realised the best course of action would be to make a run for it.

He leapt into action, running as though the devil may be at his heels when his laces tripped him once more and he fell full force onto the ground. There was no nanny to pick him up and carry him this time. He picked himself up from the ground and fell again onto a slab on the ground. Was it a grave too?

His eyes moved to the name, as though drawn.

“Damon Salvatore.” He said aloud as though by saying its name he could take away any evil power the corpse inside had to capture him, when he noticed the dates.

He frowned. It was a child’s grave. A child who’d died only 6 years before. He rubbed away some of the moss and dirt on the stone and sat back as his hairs stood on end. 

Beloved son of Lilly.

Lilly? Lilly was his mother. Mother had had another son? Mother had had another son while he was alive? If this Damon had died 6 years ago then that meant that he would have been 2. He felt his heart flutter strangely. Damon was his brother. But…why had he never heard of him? Why had no one ever mentioned him?

He stood up, feeling lost and confused. He had had a brother. He had to know what had happened. He looked up to the light in his mother’s room and bit his lip. Mother would tell him the truth.

He kicked his shoes off and began to run unhindered back towards the house. He wanted some answers.

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Damon sat at the bar, drinking. This time round he didn’t feel up to his usual shenanigans or pretences. Being his old self had been fun for a short while but now it was empty. Mercifully only a few women had offered him their bodies and he’d appeared so uninterested in them that a few had called him a queer and stormed off. You had to love this backwater town. He’d never actually been so glad of their attitudes towards homosexuality, because it meant they left him alone.

In truth he still loved women just as much but the only person he wanted to sleep with was Stefan. Simple. If that made him gay then…he guessed it was a title he didn’t mind.

He smirked into his bottle. Today was a beer day. He needed to keep his head and await the call from Marcus. He had no idea what to expect and he wasn’t comfortable with that at all. He didn’t have a plan, he didn’t have anything to exchange. He sighed and put his face in his hands soberly.

He heard her clicking heels as she entered the bar and could practically feel the energy roll off of her before she even knew he’d realised her presence. He sighed again and sat upright as she approached.

“Bonnie Bennett.” He said in tired greeting that he put no enthusiasm into whatsoever.

“Old habits die hard I see.” She commented, unimpressed and sat down next to him.

He gave a small smirk and took a swig from his beer. She exhaled and looked around.

“Nice place.” She said sarcastically and he smirked again.

“How’d you find me?” He asked, pealing the label from his bottle.

“DNA and a locator spell. How many new bottles did you make up for Vida before you left? There’s a whole room full.”

He looked at her for the first time and swallowed.

“I assume it was for Vida, not Stefan.”

“No.” He agreed.

“She needs to begin eating food Damon. Do you think by bleeding yourself dry, it’ll help her somehow?”

“It was all I could leave for her.” He said simply.

She exhaled.

“Stefan’s not dead Damon.”

Damon took another drink and didn’t reply.

“He’s not dead.” Bonnie leaned towards him emphatically and Damon looked at her almost angrily.

“No? Then where the hell is he then Bon Bon?”

“I don’t know exactly…”

“Course you don’t!” He huffed and she counted to ten rather than slap his shoulder in frustration.

“Listen to me. What Vida saw…” She began and he turned to her fully.

“You saw Vida?”

“Yes, Ian called me. They’re worried you’re making a mistake. They think you’re on a suicide mission…”

“Damn dogs, I told them to call Anne and Mich…” He began to rant when Bonnie gripped his arm this time and stopped him.

“Vida knows you’re on a suicide mission!” She snapped and he stopped and paled. “Your baby knows you’ve left her.”

“She’ll be fine with…” he croaked, but Bonnie interrupted again, squeezing his arm.

“Your baby thinks her daddy has abandoned her and he’s not coming back. She knows something terrible has happened to Stefan too.”

Damon shook her grip from his arm and rubbed his face.

“She’s devastated and scared, because you made a stupid decision without even waiting to find out what’s really going on.”

“And what the hell is going on!?” He shouted at her angrily and the barman tightened, watching their display.

Bonnie smiled apologetically in his direction and Damon glared at him, warning him not to butt in.

“Listen to me.” Bonnie calmed her voice and turned to face the bar again. “I looked into Vida’s memory to find out what she saw and it wasn’t Stefan’s spirit like you thought it was.”

That got his attention and he turned fully towards her again, his expression full of pain and desperation. She hadn’t often seen that expression and it melted some of the icy of her attitude towards him.

“It wasn’t Stefan.” She repeated and he looked as though he might vomit.

“But there was someone there, something…I sensed it and Vida…”

“She saw someone for sure, but Stefan is alive. We might not know where but we know that.” She comforted and he looked to her in agony.

“How do we know that?”

“Because Vida knows he is. She can feel him still.”

He flinched. Strange to feel jealous of your own child. How could she feel Stefan when he couldn’t?

“Vida is a special baby Damon. She and Stefan have a connection different from anyone else in the world. She came from his body, even though his body should never have been able to create her. That goes way beyond any parent and child relationship ever seen before.”

He nodded slowly as he considered that. Still, he felt oddly left out.

“I wasn’t sure until I touched her mind and now I am. He’s still around somewhere.”

They fell silent, with Bonnie ordering a coffee while Damon processed everything.

“Who was it then?” He finally asked and she exhaled.

“That’s the problem. I have no idea and that’s why we need you back with Vida. We need to figure out who this woman was and why she’s communicating with Vida.”

“Woman?” Damon sat more upright and she nodded.

“Yeah. Youngish in her late 20’s maybe early thirties.”

Damon frowned.

“She was black, um, she wore her hair up in a scarf.”

Damon stared into nowhere trying to build a picture in his mind.

“She seemed to know Vida, know both of you. It was kind of like she was trying to calm Vida.”

“Calm her?” He mumbled.

“Yeah. I couldn’t get a feel on why she was there and what her intentions were but somehow, Vida trusted her.” Damon looked to her, full of emotion again.

“What did Vida feel?”

“She felt like Stefan had sent her. Like she was going to protect everyone.”

Damon gulped and searched her eyes.

“We don’t know what is going on wherever Stefan is, but it’s clear there’s other forces out there. This one seems to be benign, but we can’t trust that until we find out more. So we need you home. Only you and the other mates can channel with Vida and we need to know who she saw.”

Damon nodded absent-mindedly and his cell phone began to ring. It snapped him back to attention and he hesitated in answering. Bonnie returned to her coffee, listening curiously as Damon answered and spoke cryptically. He hung up and she looked at him.

“What are you scheming?” She asked when she saw how momentarily conflicted he seemed.

He gave her a sarcastic smile and she sat her cup down.

“Really? After everything we’ve been through together lately? You’re going to keep secrets?” She said incredulously and his smile faded as he stared into thin air and thought about it.

“Why are you in Hicksville? It’s not for customer service.” She looked around at the clientele.

“I have my reasons.”

“Which are?” She probed and he looked at her blankly.

She tilted her head but he continued to stare at her with no expression and she chuckled without mirth and put a five dollar bill down on the bar for her coffee.

“Back to being a jackass huh? That didn’t take long.” She commented, standing up. “Well, you enjoy whatever you’re up to. I am going to go back to the wolves and tell them to call Anne. Vida needs one parent she can rely on until we can save her other one.”

He paid her no heed and returned to drinking from his bottle as she moved away. 

“Are you seriously not coming back to help us? To help Vida?” She asked and he ignored her.  
She moved to the door, in disbelief that he was really going to let her go. Was he really so lost to the grief that Stefan was unable to be saved? Her heart clenched in pain, not just pain for Vida or the others, but pain for all of them.

“Stefan would be so proud.” She whispered, knowing only he would hear and left the bar, headed back to the wolves.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29 TH

“What’s gotten into you hawk eye?” He heard Beth laugh from another room and he had to stifle a shudder.

Toby’s abilities were increasing and they were increasing alarmingly quickly. He put his head in his hands and scratched his scalp. Something wasn’t right. He couldn’t shake the feeling. It may be time to contact the mates. Then again, what could they do? They probably wouldn’t know any more than he – except Stefan perhaps. When you walked the line between having been dead and then been resurrected, you sometimes have more of an awareness of the other side. Plus Stefan would no doubt sense changes to Vida’s attitude also. Stefan hated him right now though.

Elizabeth would no doubt see any action as being premature and an overreaction. She thought he was paranoid, but he knew better. As the days progressed, Toby was becoming more aware of apparent spirits around them. Klaus felt helpless.  
How could you protect someone from things you couldn’t see? From beings that held no connection to the earth. From things that you couldn’t inflict pain upon.

He shook his head and steepled his fingers. Tobby giggled.

Uncertainty.

He felt Beth channel by accident. Toby was her world and she was concerned about this. Still, by nature she was an optimist and she was trying not to follow his fear bandwagon. He lifted his cell and dialled out. He needed some psychic help at the very least. Time to shake the grapevine and find out whether the spirits around Toby were a threat or not.

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He waited until Bonnie was gone before he relaxed his clenched fists. Stefan was still alive. He put his face in his hands, overcome by relief and emotion. He closed his eyes and tried to breathe, shedding a few tears that he wiped away immediately. He had to be careful, he had no friends here, no real allies and he had to appear as strong and ambivalent as he’d been upon arrival. 

He ordered Bourbon.

Knowing Stefan was alive changed his game plan. There was a chance he’d survive now. Before he’d assumed it was only a matter of time until he started to die and he hadn’t wanted Vida to see that happening. She’d have known what was inevitable and it would have distressed her more – the pain of a mate dying was like nothing else and he’d never have been able to conceal what he was going through. Now knowing he had time was good.

He pushed his chair back, taking his glass of bourbon with him as he moved upstairs to the dingy little room he had paid for. The walls were damp and he was pretty sure there were rodents around but he didn’t care. He went into the room and lay down, looking up at the ceiling. Marcus had called. He’d wanted to clue Bonnie in on it, but it was too risky to involve a good witch. She might not be on board with his plan to do whatever it took to end Grandma’s connection to them, probably because it was a decision that shouldn’t be his alone. He knew she’d voice that and he didn’t have time to argue with her over the merits of consent of the others. At the end of the day he knew that sometimes someone needed to make the hard calls and be hated for it, meanwhile accomplishing what everyone really needed. Whether they’d understand it right now wasn’t important. They would eventually.

He nodded to himself and lifted his cell phone. He was dreading this phone call, but it was necessary. Stefan would probably hate this, but what else could he do? No way in hell Grandma intended to give Stefan’s body back to them. He had to make sure that it happened and he couldn’t do that if Grandma cottoned on to his plan in any way.

He hesitated, staring at the phone. Should he channel to Nathan first? Check on his progress? He sighed and closed his eyes as he considered it. Nathan was his beta, his ally – maybe the only one right now that he could count on. He was so like Stefan in morals. Perhaps he should run it by him first. Then again, if he did, then he risked putting Nathan in danger with that knowledge. Grandma may be able to break into his mind bubble and read his thoughts. It was too risky.

Family, Nathan?

He channelled anyway. He should check on him.

Alpha?

How goes the big bad wolf?

Dressed in grandma’s clothing.

Any ideas what she’s planning yet?

No. She’s trying to mess with us.

How?

He frowned. He could see that grandma was smart. She would probably use her knowledge of their lives and abilities to her advantage. He didn’t like her foreknowledge at all. She probably knew more about Nathan than he did.

She’s just trying to claim responsibility for how some of the spell worked. Don’t worry, I don’t believe a word she’s saying.

Be careful.

Family. Pack.

He exhaled and chewed his lip. What was she talking to Nathan about exactly? It was difficult not to be curious. After all, they’d been reduced to animals for the entirety and only grandma knew what she’d really done to them.

Alpha?

He blinked in surprise.

Yeah?

She’s discovering the uh…wonders of being in a body again.

What do you mean?

Morning rise for one. Humour. Maybe if I bombard her with some of these things, it’ll knock the wind out of her sails and she’ll lean on me a little more. If I can gain her trust…

No, if she starts to enjoy being in Stefan’s body she won’t give it up.

Damon warned.

Alpha, you really think she’s going to anyway? Skepticism.

Damon nodded to himself. At least he and Nathan agreed on one thing. 

Probably not.

He agreed.

Maybe she’s forgotten what being alive is really like – the uncertainty, pain, emotion. All she seemed to understand beforehand was hatred and vengeance. Maybe if she understands how we feel, it’ll change her mind about using us all.

Damon chuckled and shook his head. Nathan was such a dreamer, so hopefully and unjaded. A few more years around he and Stefan and that would change! As he realised that he deflated a little. He liked Nathan the way he was. Being around their crazy lives would ruin a lot of who he was, the way he saw the world. He swallowed hard. Weird to feel protective over someone other than Vida and Stefan.

Alpha?

Nathan prompted and Damon exhaled.

Try it your way, but watch her. She’s old and smart.

I will. 

Damon rubbed his face again and looked to his cell screen again. It was now or never. Time to dance with another devil.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Stefan wept in his bed. His whole back and rear stung as though he’d been speared by a hundred angry bees. Father had hit him. He’d actually done it – the look of anger in his eyes, he’d never seen it before. He’d almost seemed like an animal when he brought the belt down on him repeatedly.

He hiccupped as tears continued to saturate his pillow. Father had permitted no one to attend him either. He wanted Flora. He needed someone to hold him and soothe the pain. Why was father so angry? All he’d wanted to know was why he hadn’t heard of this ‘Damon’ person before. Why had it invoked such a rage from father?

He buried his face deep into the pillow and tried not to touch his rear. It was difficult not to though, his blood pulsed there. He’d never felt pain like this before, had never been beaten before.

He held his breath in terror as he heard footsteps approach his room. Please, no more father!

The footsteps halted at his door and he cringed and held himself tight. The door unlocked from the outside and opened. He held his breath. Whoever it was stood looking at him for a few seconds before closing the door and walking towards the window. He slowly turned his face, but was too afraid to open his eyes.

“Why must you continue to resist Stefan?” His father mumbled and he brought his limbs in towards his belly to protect himself from any more lashes of the belt. “I’ve given you a new start here. A chance to save yourself.”

Father’s words didn’t make any sense. What was he talking about? What had he done to make him so angry?

“You know going into the cemetery is forbidden. You know not to disturb your mother. You know how fragile her mind is.” His voice was calm but authorative.

Stefan didn’t know what to say. Should he speak or simply listen?

“Why can’t you just live?”

He opened his eyes now, confused and looked at him.

“I’m sorry father.” He whispered, unsure if he should and Giuseppe turned to look at him.

He swallowed and shivered and Giuseppe looked to his clothes, seeing the blood spot parts where he’d been beaten.

“You must stay pure Stefan. It’s the only way to save yourself.”

“Yes sir.” He whispered although he had no idea what he was talking about.

Giuseppe exhaled and he closed his eyes again and turned his face back into the pillow for comfort. Father’s temper had receded. Hopefully he’d just leave him alone now and let Flora come. Giuseppe walked over to the bed and sat down at his side. Stefan didn’t make any movements.

“I do this to protect you son. To save your soul. I will always try and save you from yourself, from others. I failed you last time but I will not this time. I swear to you.”

Stefan turned his head, tears rolling from his eyes.

“Father, I don’t understand.” He sobbed and Giuseppe seemed to melt and lay his hand on his head.

Stefan jolted in fear and Giuseppe swallowed hard at that, running his fingers into Stefan’s hair comfortingly.

“I am your father, you don’t need to understand just trust me.” He said gently and Stefan continued to sob.  
Giuseppe sighed in remorse.

“Your brother is not a topic I ever wish to discuss after today and you must never mention his name to your mother again.”  
Stefan gave a nod of understanding.

“He was rotten inside Stefan. I knew it from the moment he began to talk back at me. He had something about him. I knew he’d take the wrong path in life and he wouldn’t heed me.”

Stefan listened carefully and closed his eyes.

“Worse still was his effect on you. I knew, that should he live, he’d corrupt you. I couldn’t have that.”

Stefan looked to him in pain and confusion. It almost sounded as though father had…No. He couldn’t have, not to a child! Giuseppe avoided his eyes.

“I admit that it was partly my fault. Perhaps I should have beaten him more. I should have sent him to doctors perhaps, but I knew he’d inherited…” he shook his head as though unwilling to finish his line of thought, “I knew he’d fight me. I grieved for his soul, longer than I should have because it made me weak. I allowed him to grow more than I should have.”

“Father, what happened to him?”

Giuseppe looked at him and swallowed hard.

“His foolish nature, son.” Giuseppe answered with a non-answer and Stefan felt his hair prickle.

“Did you hurt him?” Stefan almost couldn’t speak from fear.

If his father was capable of that, what would he do to him? This couldn’t be happening.

“No! Son!” Giuseppe said horrified and lay his hands on Stefan’s shoulders gently as Stefan searched his face. “With god as my witness, son. He was still my blood despite the demon in him. I couldn’t.”

Stefan turned his body slowly, grimacing as he did and Giuseppe helped him sit upright – the flame of guilt burning in his cheeks as he saw how much pain he had inflicted on his cherished son.

“He fell.” Giuseppe said. “From a horse.”

Stefan wiped his tears across his face with his arm and sniffled.

“The horse knew what he was and threw him.”

“What was he?” Stefan asked and Giuseppe closed his eyes and tightened. “Was he a demon?”

“In a way.” Giuseppe said grieved and looked away from him. “That’s why we don’t speak of it. You are a pure soul son and I knew that you would grieve for a brother, even one who would have damned you.”

“How?”

“You’re too young to understand.” Giuseppe gave a small smile. “When you are a man, I will explain it all.”

“When will that be?”

Giuseppe gave a chuckle and cupped Stefan’s face.

“Soon my boy. Soon. No more talking of Damon. Your mother will get more upset recalling what can’t be undone and it may make her illness worse. Do you understand?” Giuseppe said gently and Stefan nodded. “Stefan it’s important that you obey me. I know what’s best for you, for your mother. You must let the doctors do their work and not disturb her. Her mind is battling against death and she needs rest.”

The mention of death had him sobbing again and Giuseppe carefully guided him into a hug, trying not to touch his wounds. Stefan sobbed against him now and Giuseppe cooed.

“I will send Flora in and she will clean you up. Now, a boy your age shouldn’t cry. Show the servants who their master is, son.”  
Stefan pulled back and nodded, drying his tears. 

Giuseppe nodded and stood up.

“Don’t go into that cemetery again, Stefan.”

Stefan nodded and watched as his father left the room. He continued to breathe harshly and sniffle. He had no idea what the hell that had been about and now he couldn’t ask mother. If mother was fighting death, he couldn’t weaken her. Mother couldn’t die! He would just have to forget ‘Damon’.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Bonnie waited in her car. Damon was up to something and she needed to know what. It must be big enough to make Damon stay here when he knew Vida was upset and needed him. What could it possibly be? What the hell would he need to come to a dump like this for?

She sighed and checked her phone. She texted Ian to let him know she’d found Damon but she didn’t know what to tell the wolves, other than to keep trying what they could with Vida. Vida was a stubborn baby. Thankfully Isabella had infinite patience and had managed to get her feeding from Damon’s blood once more. Human food was still off the table though. Vida just wouldn’t accept it and that worried them all. Surely if she were to grow she’d need more than that. Her body was alive – it wasn’t fully vampire. Isabella felt in her gut that she should be eating.

Damon hadn’t come out of his room in a while now. If only she could tune into his thoughts like the mates could. Mind you, she might see horrors in his head and she didn’t want that – opening up the mind of Damon Salvatore wouldn’t be a picnic she wagered.

Finally after an hour, Damon emerged from the building and began to walk into the woods. She frowned. She’d assumed he’d drive to where he was going. What could be in the woods? She climbed out from her car and sighed. His senses were so sharp he’d hear her coming a mile away. Having wolf senses on top of vampire ones made certain of that fact. She tried to focus. There was a spell she’d seen in her grimoire that she hadn’t ever used on herself. It could be useful now though.

She grabbed it from the back of the car and flipped through it. She had used an invisibility element to shield Jonathan Gilbert Journal when Damon had had to collect it for Logan Fell and the other’s who’d forced her and her grams to do the opening spell - the spell that had killed Grams and gotten Stefan killed originally. The spell to cloak the book from anyone but Damon had worked really well and they hadn’t had a problem. Could she cloak herself though? A person was much bigger than a book. Still, what choice did she have? She quickly recited the spell and put the book safely back in the trunk, locking it with magic, before checking for her reflection in her wing mirror. There was nothing. She marvelled and chuckled, before remembering she had to follow.

She ran in the direction he’d gone in, amazed that not only was she cloaked visibly, but so was any sounds she might make – perfectly convenient for this moment. She’d have to use this spell again.

She stopped a few feet away from him and waited. He was obviously meeting someone. He looked around and searched the woods, looking right at her and she held tight in fear he could see her. He frowned. How odd. He knew she was out here – well maybe not her exactly but he knew that something wasn’t right. Amazing. Wolf part or vamp part of him? He continued to stare in her direction when his head turned elsewhere and she looked in the direction he was. She couldn’t see or hear anyone, but he obviously could.

After a few minutes she heard footsteps, several of them and Damon appeared to stand on alert. Clearly he was expecting one person and not several. She moved a little closer and Damon’s expression tightened into anger and she could see why. All around him, people approached and circled him. She stood far enough back to avoid detection, but some of the other people looked around as though searching also. She swallowed and waited.

“Where’s Marcus?” Damon asked, looking a little cornered.

“He’s coming, but first of all we make the trade of services.” One woman said commandingly and Damon chuckled and tilted his head at her.

“And you need all your little helpers here to make sure I play fair?” He scoffed.

“You’re a vampire.” Was the woman’s response. 

“What’s the trade?” Damon asked impatiently.

“You.” The woman said and Damon blinked.

Bonnie stepped closer, her skin prickling in alert.

“Excuse me?”

“In exchange for breaking your kinds blood connection to the original wolf, we want your body.”

“And why the hell would I agree to that?” Damon let his vampire eyes show in warning.

“Because you’re dying anyway and we are the only ones who can give you what you want.” The woman was confident and seemed sound in her bargaining.

Bonnie frowned. Damon must have told them Stefan was dead. What the hell was their spell? To break their blood connection to grandma? What? What would that accomplish?

“Marcus said you’d only need my blood.” Damon bargained and the woman shook her head.

“No. We need your tissue.”

“What for?”

“For study.”

“Study?” Damon scoffed again and looked around at them all. “Don’t see any grad students here, lady. Where the hell do a bunch of gypsies keep lab equipment? In your wagon?”

Gypsies. Shit. Bonnie’s eyes widened as she realised. These people were travellers.

She clenched her fists. Of course! Grandma had had a traveller magically add the special element into the blood of her children so that each new generation would carry it and help her draw upon their collective life force once they mated, for her spell. The element was almost like an inherent trait and when coupled with werewolf mating it made the connection to grandma stronger…God. Damon had figured it out. If the travellers undid that spell, then it would unlink the babies and any future babies from grandma. It wouldn’t stop them being related to her because there would be no way to rip the element from the blood of people who already had it, so Vida and Toby would still carry it, but if the connection was severed, they’d be able to mate when they were adults and not have their bond seal like the mates. That would mean that when they did mate as adults, the bond would now be a normal wolf one and their children would be born without the element afterwards.

Damon had set this up as a way of ensuring that Vida would survive and live as normal a life as possible. If they failed to get Grandma out of Stefan voluntarily and they were forced to kill Damon to kill Stefan’s body, then Grandma would no doubt try again and she would try to drain her other descendants. There weren’t many left – Klaus, the mates, Nathan and 3 other humans and grandma would count on being able to drain from any of their offspring too. Bonnie had cast with Klaus’s blood to earth the mates, so she couldn’t draw from them anymore, but she could draw from the humans however. Thankfully they weren’t strong enough unless she had hundreds of them and she’d only have three. It’d never be enough to bring her back without any connection to offspring. 

Bonnie put her fingers into her hair and pulled. This had been a suicide mission. He really had believed that Stefan was gone. What the hell were they to do now? Gypsies and witches didn’t play well together. If she tried to approach them now, it could end badly. She returned her attention back to Damon, who was now snarling and arguing.

“You think I’m going to let you get your hands on a mated body? You’re crazier than you look lady!” He growled and they pulled the circle around him tighter.

“You were the one that came to us vampire! Now you either make the trade or we walk away. It’s your choice.”

“And I’m supposed to trust that if I hand myself over, you’re going to keep your end of the bargain?”

The woman stepped forward and held out her hand. Damon looked down at it and saw a crystal there.

“What’s that?” He snorted.

“The bind for the spell. This was used in the casting of your spell. Destroying it with a little magic will sever the connection.”  
“That’s it?” He said sarcastically. “I know witches and they need a little more than pretty rock to cast a spell, lady!”

“Yes, well.” The woman began to chuckle and they all did, causing Damon to scowl and look around at them all. “That’s witchcraft for you – very little power, but lots of tools. Our magic is ancient and elemental.”

Damon pulled his expression back to blank once more and stood taller, staring the woman out.

“What would you get out of having me in exchange?”

“That’s for us to know, now do you want the spell broken or not?” She asked and there was a finality to her voice.

He drew in a deep breath and looked towards her palm. She was so close, if that crystal was the bind, maybe he could grab her and it and take them back to Bonnie. Bonnie’s magic he could count on. He cracked a small smile.

“Go to hell.” He flashed his teeth and dove for her.

They all linked hands suddenly and Damon fell to the ground gasping as though he couldn’t breathe. Bonnie ran forwards, chanting to try and summon a wind to knock them all over, when they simply vanished. Damon sprang up angrily and shouted into the air. He was infuriated. He fell to his knees and pounded the ground as he screamed.

Bonnie stopped before him, panting at her exertion and he slumped his shoulders, grabbing pieces of mud and squeezing them.  
Bonnie let the invisibility slip from her like a piece of fabric and Damon looked up at her tiredly, defeated. He opened his mouth and then closed it, bowing his head.

“You’re not a dumb as you I thought.” She commented and he slumped further and sat down, staring off into the woods. “You couldn’t let me in on your brilliant plan?”

“Not so brilliant.” He mumbled.

“Not this way, no.” She agreed. “Come on, get up. We’ve got a spell to undo.”

“The only one who can undo it is a traveller Bonnie.” He said, sounding defeated.

“I know.”

“That was my only shot.” He croaked.

“You didn’t have much of great plan there did you?” She commented and he didn’t answer.

“Thinking is hard right now.” He admitted and she nodded.

She reached her hand down to help him up and he looked at her. She raised her eyebrows and he took her hand, standing up.  
“If you’ve taught me anything, it’s that you have to know your enemies weaknesses.” She said, dusting the mud off of her hands and he exhaled. “These people wanted your body, which means there’s something in you they need.”

“My blood.” He mumbled.

“No. If they just needed that they could have just disabled you and taken you with them.” She surmised, looking around.  
He turned to her, thinking about that.

“There’s another reason and we’re going to figure it out.” She said confidently and he seemed to pick up a little. “Now, let’s get you home to your daughter shall we?”

He nodded and followed her back to her car.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30 TH

Vida’s face lit up the second he entered Ian’s hut and he felt his heart melt.

“Daaaa!” She cried and reached for him and he blurred to her, scaring Ian.

Ian gasped but handed her carefully over as Damon gave him a small smile of thanks.

Vida began to chatter letters at him as though talking and he chuckled and kissed her cheeks and head, bouncing her. She put her hands on either side of his neck and stared up at him delighted.

“I’m back angel baby.” He smiled.

“Just in time too.” Ian said, standing up and hugging Isabella to him.

Vida giggled, showing her little teeth and Damon hugged her to his chest and closed his eyes for a second.

Love. Daddy, my baby girl.

Happiness.

He smiled at her channelled emotion and looked to Ian, who was standing vibrating tension. He immediately frowned and looked to Isabella.

“What’s wrong?” He asked.

“The wolves who attacked the camp that night. We think we know who they are.” Ian said grimly and Damon frowned.

He’d forgotten all about that already. So much had happened. Ian gestured for him to take a seat. He sat down and held Vida on his knee, grabbing her squeaky toy and handing it to her. She became immersed in chewing it as Bonnie came into the room and took a seat with a coffee.

“Hit me.” Damon said, listening fully.

“John checked around a few local hospitals for anyone with limb injuries and found a few names. He went out to figure out if they could be wolves. One name led him to another camp.”

“Is he alive?” Damon asked.

“Yeah. He just got close enough to do recon. They are a big pack and they are pissed.”

“They’re lucky I let any of them get away.” Damon gave a growl and Vida looked up at him in surprise.

He bounced her and made his expression neutral again.

“They lost a few to wounds – Stefan got one guy pretty good. John recons the guy was their alpha, so they’re re-grouping the pecking order.”

“And?” Damon said, uninterested.

“It looked like they were preparing for another attack.” Ian said pointedly.

“Let them. I’ll rip the rest of their legs off.” Damon gave a dangerous smile and Ian sighed.

“Damon, they’ll wait for another moon to make a move most likely and when we are wolves, we can’t always think like humans do. That’s why we stay away from human pack members and children, in case we hurt them by accident. If we stay here for the change, to guard, we might not be able to control who we go after.”

Damon huffed.

“If there are other wolves in your camp, surely you’d go for them not us?” Bonnie frowned in concern and Ian nodded.

“Yeah, we would protect our territory, but it wouldn’t mean we could stop there.” He said.

“The spell you cast on us before, when the army of vampires came for Vida to kill Klaus – could you do it again? I was able to think like myself while I was in my wolf form.” Isabella recalled and Bonnie nodded.

“Yeah, I could do that.” 

“Shame you couldn’t make it permanent.” Ian sighed.

“We’ve got bigger problems.” Damon mumbled.

“Travellers.” Bonnie said and Ian and Isabella looked to each other and back at them, not following.

“I tried to make a deal with them to break grandma’s hold on our bloodline, but they escaped.”

“Who or what are travellers?” Ian sat forward.

“Gypsies. Romany descent. They have a special kind of spirit magic. It’s different from the magic that I can channel but it’s still powerful. Problem is that they keep to themselves and generally only use it for personal gains.” Bonnie explained. “They’re dangerous. They don’t like outsiders and they will kill people who stand in their way.”

“And now, they know about mates?” Ian asked, still not following.

“They made us.” Damon said and Isabella sat down. “Technically speaking.” He added.

“You asked them to undo the mates?” Ian asked and Damon shook his head.

“Only they can undo the spell that links grandma’s living descendants to her through their blood. There’s something special in their blood that allows the ability to mate like they do as opposed to the normal mating you guys have.” Bonnie said. 

“Yeah, wouldn’t mind a bit of telepathy here and there.” Ian joked.

“If they undo it, then the babies will be free of her and any future generations.”

“Ok. How is that going to help us now?”

“It probably won’t.” Damon exhaled and sat back further, pressing Vida into his stomach and holding around her belly.

“Except we know that they were interested in a trade for them breaking the spell. Which means now that they know they’ve got something he wants, they will come after Damon for what they need.”

“What did they want in exchange?” Isabella asked, rummaging around for Vida’s baby bottle and handing it to Damon.  
“Damon, alive.” Bonnie said and Damon smirked and turned Vida around to feed her.

Vida shouted out in protest and wiggled, until he tilted her into his elbow and slipped the tit into her mouth. She sucked and looked up at him, putting her hands around the bottle too.

“For protection?” Isabella wondered and Damon drew an expression of mirth.

“No, I don’t think so. They have magic for that.”

“If they’re so powerful, then why do they live like nomads then?” Ian asked and Damon sucked his bottom lip into his mouth as he considered that. 

Bonnie shrugged.

“From what I know about gypsies, they travel around from place to place. They never stay anywhere and call it home.” Isabella added.

“I don’t know.” Bonnie admitted. “I’ve never met any before today. I’ve just read about them.”

“Well you technically didn’t meet them. You went all James Bond on me.” Damon smirked and Bonnie gave a small smile.

“Ok, so we have a possible gypsy invasion for Damon and a pack of wolves preparing to attack us for no reasons we can figure.” Ian surmised.

“Do fights between packs happen often?”

“More regularly since Klaus started gunning for us, but not much.” Isabella said.

“Why are they willing to fight us and get maimed? What the hell does this pack matter to them anyway?” Damon said irritated.  
“Well, no other pack has mates in it.” Ian said aloud, although he’d been trying hard not to focus on that.

Damon looked at him silently.

“How would they know?” Bonnie looked to Isabella.

“Maybe one of them knows you or Stefan and knows you’re vampires? Our kinds don’t mix, so if someone knew you’d joined our pack they might think we were traitors to our kind.” Ian said. “I doubt anyone would ever suspect that you were a third species.”

“Not in anyone’s wildest dreams.” Isabella agreed and Vida exhaled loudly, making them all smile as she suckled from her bottle.

“Ok, so that’s a possibility. Could the other pack believe that Stefan or Damon had compelled your pack somehow?”

“Wolves can be compelled unfortunately.” Ian sighed, trying not to sound accusatory and Damon clenched his jaw.

“You do get around Damon. It makes sense someone might recognise you.” Bonnie sighed.

“Yeah but to want to attack a whole pack to get to me while cubs were being born?” Damon said sceptically.

Vida kicked and cried, pushing her bottle away and he sat her up and burped her. The silence in the room was daunting. He felt under the microscope. Had he pissed off a wolf from that other pack and caused them to come and try and take him down? Why though? Why come to the camp, why not get him alone if it really was about him or Stefan?

“It could explain why they attacked when the rest of us weren’t at camp. If they wanted you two.” Ian added.

“No one else knows about the babies right? No one but the mates, Klaus, me and your pack?” Bonnie asked and Ian nodded.  
“Maybe someone in your pack is giving away secrets.” Damon accused and Ian tensed.

“No, it has to be something else.”

“Call a spade a spade…” Damon rhymed and Ian stifled a growl.

“You’ve been in this pack five minutes Damon! You don’t know us all yet. When I say that we can trust our pack, then you can bet your vamp ass that I’m right.”

Damon’s eyes tingled and Bonnie stood up.

“Ok, ok. Tensions are high. We have to stick together. It’s probably not knowledge of the babies so it must be you or Stefan being here that’s drawing them.” She said. “If they believe that your pack are compelled, would they really hurt you too?”  
Ian paled and looked to Isabella.

“We should move the pack again.” Isabella said and Bonnie nodded.

“No!” Both Damon and Ian said at the same time. 

“We’re wolves, we defend what’s ours.” Ian said and Damon nodded. “If we need to, then we prepare to fight.”

“What about Constance?” Bonnie brought up and Ian sighed. “She’s the alpha.”

“And a mother of three. She’s put me in command right now.” Ian advised.

“We have to move the families out if this other pack are that big and dangerous.” Isabella worried and Damon held Vida out in front of him and looked at her face.

“Or we move me out to where they think they can get me.” He said, while kissing Vida’s cheeks again and making her giggle.  
“What?” Ian scoffed.

Bonnie and Damon exchanged knowing glances. 

“The gypsies want Damon and if the wolves do too, then they’ll fight each other for him rather than us.” She said, feeling uncomfortable about using anyone as bait.

“We can’t let you be bait!” Ian argued. 

“Ok then, why don’t you set up our bazooka guns then, coz we’re gonna need them!” Damon said sarcastically.

Vida fussed and he lay her into his elbow again and rocked her. She hiccupped and looked up to the ceiling, her eyes wide. The adults bickered for a few minutes, trying to come up with a plan. Vida reached her hands up and giggled suddenly and caught their attention. Bonnie stood up on alert and approached Damon.

“Is it?” Damon frowned, touching Vida’s face to get her attention, but failing. “It’s the same thing she did before.”

“Channel to her Damon. Link to what she’s seeing.” Bonnie instructed.

“I can’t do it like that. She’s too young, her mind doesn’t make any sense.” He frowned. “I just get images of Stefan or stray feelings.”

“Focus. Try and see through her eyes. Come on, try.” She urged and he sighed but touched Vida’s forehead and closed his eyes to concentrate.

He frowned in concentration. They all watched, their hearts beating hard. After a few minutes Damon’s expression softened and he opened his eyes blinking groggily.

“Damon?” Bonnie touched his arm gently.

Vida gurned and closed her eyes, turning her face to his chest for comfort and he blinked again.

“I saw her.” He mumbled.

“Who?” Bonnie asked and squeezed his arm. “Damon, who is the spirit?”

He looked to her, seemingly stoned.

“Mammy.” He whispered, sounding confused.

“Mammy?” Isabella frowned and looked to Bonnie. “His mother?”

“No, they’re old skool.” Bonnie sighed. “Wet nurse.”

Ian and Isabella nodded, but seemed perplexed. The days of wet nurses were long over and the whole concept seemed strange now. Of course they didn’t know about Stefan and Damon’s background – their human lives or even how old they were. They’d come from a different period in history.

“Miss Flora.” Damon whispered again and Bonnie sat down on her knees and bit her lip.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nisha roused, hearing someone stomp away from the camp. She sat up, unzipping her sleeping bag and looked at the time on her cell. It was early still. The sun was beating down upon the surface of the tent, increasing the temperature inside. It was like an oven and she felt sticky with perspiration. She yawned, reaching for some water and rubbed a moist toilette over her face to freshen up. A shower would be highly agreeable but they were out in the middle of the woods.

She unzipped the tent and stepped out into the light, blinking a little at the brightness. Grandma was sitting by a camp fire, looking through the contents of Nathan’s backpack. She stopped as though caught red handed and looked to Nisha sheepishly. How bizarre to see her appear anything other than focussed and non-plussed.

“Looking for something?” Nisha asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Food.”

“Why?” Nisha frowned and took a seat next to her.

“Curiosity.” Grandma shrugged and tried to appear ambivalent.

Nisha peeked inside and retrieved a can of beans. Good job Nathan. She smiled, shaking her head at how ready he’d been for this. She grabbed a pot from his bag – it was just big enough for one person, fitting amazingly around the other pan and kettle like piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Clearly Nathan was outdoorsy and this kit was made to take up as little room as possible.

“I’ve never seen Stefan eat.” She commented as she put the now full pot on the fire/stove Nathan had made.

Grandma’s eyes widened as she smelled the beginning of cooking.

“Perhaps if he did more often, less innocents would die.” Grandma mumbled and Nisha looked to her.

“Stefan doesn’t kill people. The mates feed on each other. You saw to that.” She pointed out.

“They didn’t always. Don’t be fooled. They are still vampires.” Grandma reminded and Nisha looked down to the fire again. 

“Have you really forgotten so quickly what they did to your kind?”

Nisha chewed her lip.

“Vampires hunted wolves to near extinction.” Grandma said and Nisha felt herself tighten.

It was true.

“I had to watch.” Grandma added and Nisha looked to her again.

“Why didn’t you come back then and stop it? Why now for one being?”

Grandma sighed and toed dirt with her foot.

“I couldn’t back then. I didn’t have the strength.”

“What changed?”

Grandma gave a small smile, but it was clear that she wouldn’t answer. Nisha returned to the beans, stirring them to avoid burning. Her stomach rumbled as the smell drifted to her nose. She tasted a spoonful and hummed in enjoyment. Beans were the easiest food in the world. She looked in Nathan’s bag for a bowl and found two. She hesitated. She glanced over at Grandma and saw that she was gazing at the pot too.

She pulled out the bowls and separated the beans into both, handing one to Grandma. Grandma took it from her, looking surprised but grateful.

“Try them.” Nisha advised and sat back down to eat hers.

Grandma lifted the bowl to her mouth despite Nisha handing her a spoon. Nisha watched curiously. Grandma ate slowly, completely mesmerized by the taste and smell. She licked her lips and sighed, licking the bowl.

“Good?” Nisha asked and Grandma simply nodded.

“I’d forgotten.”

“What?”

“What it was like to chew, to taste a texture.” Grandma marvelled, still licking the plate.

Nisha gave a small chuckle. She couldn’t imagine.

“You think beans are good, wait till we get you to a Waffle House.”

“A what?”

Nisha chuckled and shook her head and Grandma smiled too. Nisha tightened a little at that. She looked more like Stefan in this moment. Stefan – the real Stefan, smiled a lot. Nisha looked down and resumed eating her beans.

“Did I say something wrong?” Grandma enquired after her change in composure and Nisha shook her head. 

Grandma waited for a reply, staring at her intently and Nisha swallowed a mouthful of beans, feeling herself blush under her scrutiny.

“You just, looked like Stefan for a minute.” She mumbled, avoiding eye contact.

Grandma blinked in confusion.

“He smiles a lot.” Nisha added, stirring her beans distractedly.

Grandma sighed.

“You won’t…hurt him afterwards will you?” Nisha couldn’t help but ask.

There were so many questions she wanted to ask. She was scared to know the answers, but she just had to ask. Grandma scrutinized her carefully.

“Why do you care so much?”

“He’s my friend.” Nisha replied and Grandma frowned sceptically. “He’s not like other vampires. He tries so hard to protect people, no matter who they are – wolf, human, witch…”

“Would you like me to tell you a little more about who Stefan Salvatore really is?” Grandma leaned forward and Nisha paled a little.

Did she want to know? Stefan didn’t talk about the past but she could tell from the way that Damon tortured himself, that their past had been full of horrors – some which had happened to them and some which had happened by their own hands.

“I almost don’t want that burden on you. The burden of knowledge.” Grandma sighed and Nisha discarded her beans as her stomach clenched.

“Everyone has a past, it’s who he is now that I’m interested in and he’s a good person.”

“Perhaps.”

“You’re in his body, can’t you…see some of his memories? Feel them?” Nisha clasped her hands and sat forward eagerly.  
Grandma frowned and shuffled a little on the spot.

“I am aware of his past. I don’t need to see it.”

“But you could?” Nisha asked.

Grandma kept her mouth tightly closed. Nisha sat upright as she heard footsteps approach.

“Steal my grave as quick?” Nathan jested, seeing the pot and beans and Nisha stood up and hugged him warmly.

“Sorry. I was like a bear at a picnic.” She smiled and he chuckled and shook his head.

Grandma watched their interplay closely.

“We should have enough supplies actually. Unless that is, if we are going to be hiking much longer?” He looked to Grandma straight faced.

Grandma looked up at the sky, judging the time and they waited, watching her.

“Probably another night.” She advised and Nathan nodded.

“Well, in that case we’ll be fine. There’s a lake not far away. I could use a dip.” He looked to Nisha and she nodded, agreeing.  
“Thank god, I feel like I’ve been baked.” Nisha sighed and returned to the tent to grab a towel and bar of soap.

Nathan looked to grandma.

“Coming?”

“What for?”

“It’s hot.” He said and grandma raised her eyebrows.

Of course, vampires didn’t really feel cold or heat unless they were on fire. Stefan’s body was a great insulation suit.  
“Guess not for you. Stefan…”

“Stefan is not here!” Grandma suddenly bellowed and Nathan paused. “I am!”

Nisha climbed out of the tent sheepishly and looked to Nathan. Nathan clenched his fists and unclenched them. Grandma exhaled and looked away from him.

“Eve.” Nisha said and Grandma looked to her. “The water would refresh you, clean you.”

Nathan began walking away again and Nisha nodded to him that she’d follow.

“It’s relaxing to swim.” Nisha added and Grandma gave a small nod and stood up.

Nisha exhaled slowly as she released tension and began to follow Nathan. Things could get volatile very quickly here. She could evade them and run off with Stefan’s body. They had to keep cool heads and ensure that didn’t happen. Nathan was struggling because of his connection to Stefan. Maybe Grandma was right. They should try and forget about Stefan right now, call her by her name. Perhaps if she befriended her, she could make her see reason behind her crazy plan to try and kill an unkill-able monster.

They walked down to the lake, no one speaking and Nathan stopped at the edge of the bank and started to remove his clothing. Nisha followed suit and began to disrobe and Grandma stopped and watched in astonishment. They were going to swim naked?! Nisha turned to her, noticing her expression and chuckled.

“When you are used to running around naked as a wolf, you lose any fear of being naked normally. Don’t you remember?”

Grandma was stunned by the question and tried to remember back to what her life as a wolf had felt like. It had been so long ago, almost imperceptibly long. She shook her head, unable to summon that memory and Nisha gave her a small smile of encouragement.

“You’d be naked in front of a man?” Grandma asked and Nisha chuckled.

“The world has changed a lot Eve. Nathan would never hurt me. There’s nothing sexual about being naked, it’s our natural state.”

Grandma watched as Nisha removed the last of her clothing and dove into the water blissfully. She looked over to Nathan now as he removed his jeans. The sight of his muscles made her groin tingle and she squeezed it in surprise. She remembered the feeling of arousal over men well. She’d had dozens of men through her years – enough to ensure survival of her bloodline. Nathan was spectacular.

She blushed as he stood naked with his back to her and she looked to his gluts and licked her lips. To bite him there, to penetrate…Wait. She shook her head and put her face in her hands. That was her brain thinking like a man. Stefan’s manhood hardened and she exhaled irritated. Stefan’s mate was male too – was his body just programmed this way now?

Nathan jumped into the water and she sat down, full of discomfort. She didn’t like this. She wasn’t accessing any of Stefan’s memories and yet it was as though pieces of his behaviours were slipping into her mind.

Nisha beckoned her into the water and she shook her head. No. She had to get a hold on this body, she couldn’t have it malfunctioning on her. She had to stay clear headed. She watched them swim and laugh together, trying to ignore the desire to become involved, to be part of it. It had been a long time since she had had contact with people who were alive. It was a shame that Nathan was so closely tied to the mates. He was one of her sons in a way and she’d love to get to know him – to see herself in him somewhere, some trait she recognised, unfortunately, his love for Stefan was turning him against her. How could she change that?

Nathan’s body was so sculptured and young. He was fresh and strong. His children would be marvellous. Stefan’s manhood pulsed and she groaned. She checked they were far enough away and slipped her hand down into her jeans, grasping it and sighing in relief. She shouldn’t touch it while they could see her, but it was demanding her attention. She began to pump it as discretely as she could and thought of Nathan’s body. She imagined kissing him, biting his skin and it made her heart race.  
Sex was something she remembered. She wanted it. In a man’s body it would be interesting too. She must make sure that she had a chance to have sex before she was finished.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31 TH

“Tell us about her.” Bonnie asked, watching as Damon’s eyes cleared once more and he re-joined them in the moment.

Vida began to sleep and breathe loudly and peacefully in his arms as he looked down at her.

“Damon.” Bonnie prompted again.

“She was a servant.”

“Your wet nurse?” Bonnie raised her eyebrows and he nodded.

“After mother died, Stefan weakened a little, so father employed Miss Flora.”

“After your mother died? Where was Stefan’s mother?” Isabella frowned confused and Ian stared at Damon for a few seconds.  
Damon exhaled and rubbed his eyes. 

Shit.

Bonnie cleared her throat and stood up to deflect some attention from him.

“Stefan’s mother died too right? Your family adopted him?” She asked, attempting to give them the privacy they deserved over their blood ties.

“Yeah.” Damon flicked his eyes to her.

“You were human together then. You grew up together?” Ian asked and Damon smirked. “How old are you?” 

“Older than you.” Damon replied bluntly.

“What was Flora saying to Vida?” Bonnie changed topic again.

“She wasn’t really talking.” He frowned and stroked Vida’s black curls softly. “Just channelling almost.”

“Why? What for?” Ian sat forward. “And how? I take it she’s been dead for a long time, unless she’s one of you.”

“No. She died in the war. I met her son on the battlefield.”

“In the Civil War?” Bonnie confirmed and Damon nodded, getting a look of surprise from Ian.

“So Flora died human?” Bonnie reiterated and he nodded. “You’re sure?”

“As sure as I can be. I don’t make a habit of digging up graves to check Bon Bon.” He said sarcastically and she nodded.

“Can vampires get into people’s heads like this?” Isabella asked and Damon sighed and nodded. 

“The feelings I got from Vida earlier when I tried to look into her memories were…” Bonnie paused, trying to put her feelings into words, “…almost serene. I felt safe and loved. I felt like…”

She paused and Damon searched her eyes.

“Like what?” Ian encouraged and Bonnie exhaled.

“Like everything was going to be ok because my dad was coming for me.” She admitted embarrassed. “Trust me, that’s not a feeling that I’m used to with my own dad.”

They all looked at each other and Damon chewed his lip.

“Vida thinks Stefan has sent this person to comfort her?” Ian asked and Bonnie gave an unsure nod and looked to Damon.

“It was more than that.” Damon mumbled but he had no idea how to explain.

“Should we be concerned about this?” Isabella asked.

“Whatever her intentions, I think we have to be on alert.” Bonnie said and Damon kissed Vida’s head, scenting her. “This timing can’t be a coincidence.”

“Agreed.” Ian sighed.

“Could Stefan be in heaven and with the spirits?” Isabella blurted before remembering what that would mean in reality.  
Stefan couldn’t be in heaven unless he was dead – could he?

Damon gazed off into the distance and Bonnie shook her head.

“No, he can’t be.” She said. “One problem at a time. Ok? The travellers thought you were dying because you told them that before I got to you.”

Damon nodded.

“So they think they’re on a time limit. They could be here at any time. When’s the next moon?” She looked to Isabella.  
“Not for weeks.” She replied.

“If the other wolves do wait for that, rather than attack now then we’ll have to figure out a separate plan for them. I think we have to concentrate on what to do about the travellers.” Bonnie folded her arms.

“We should have called Anne.” Damon mumbled as Vida gurned.

“It really isn’t safe for her here.” Isabella sighed in acknowledgement. “She’s been through so much change and trauma. I don’t know how she will react if you disappear again Damon.”

He swallowed hard and closed his eyes. Vida gurned again and he rocked her, grabbing her pacifier from the side table and slipping it into her mouth gently. She began to suck and calmed again, squeezing her fingers into the fabric of his shirt.

“Why do the travellers need you?” Bonnie asked and he shrugged. “You must have picked up on something Damon.”  
He exhaled and stared at the wall as he tried to think.

“You used to be a world class manipulator. There must be something.” She added and he smirked slightly.

“How did you find one if they are so hard to track down?” Ian asked.

“Through an old friend.”

“A friend or someone you threatened?” Bonnie asked and he scowled at her.

“Both actually.”

She shook her head.

“Who? And why did they help you?” She continued.

“Drop the judgey eyes princess.” He gave her a smile of warning and she felt herself bristle.

Old Damon was still easily roused then.

“I held onto a little something she wanted from years ago, therefore I offered it back to her in exchange for a meeting.”

“What did you give her?” Isabella asked out of curiosity and Ian tightened, fearing the worst.

“A potion to enhance her witchy powers.” He said sounding bored and Bonnie raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Not all of you are born being able to blow up my brain cells.” Damon smirked again.

“So she’s a witch then.”

“Barely.” He scoffed. “But she’s made connections so I knew she’d know something.”

Bonnie began to pace.

“So she organised the meeting. What was the traveller like?” Ian asked.

“Grouchy and overly confident for a mortal.”

“Any useful observations?” Bonnie asked irritated and he chewed his lip.

“He knew of mates. Practically foamed at the mouth when I told him I was one.”

“That’s better. Keep going.” Bonnie sat down again and searched his face intently.

“He had jumped into someone else’s body, so no way of telling how old or powerful he was.”

They all stared at him.

“Plenty powerful is my guess.” Ian folded his arms and looked to Bonnie.

“So he was interested in you right away when he found out what you were. Did he ask any questions?” Bonnie asked.  
Damon focussed on the memory. 

“He didn’t seem to know jack shit about grandma having just done a huge spell, but he sure knew why she would have done it. He knew about the blood connection to Klaus and who Klaus is.”

“I guess that’s not that unlikely they knew of him. Klaus has hunted thousands of…”

“Wolves.” Damon finished Isabella’s sentence and raised his eyebrows. “What do travellers care about wolves? They wouldn’t blink an eyelid about a wolf killing vampire.”

“Ok, ok so they could only know about Klaus through a different connection, not because of his killing sprees.” Bonnie held her hands out before Damon caused any ill feeling. “Travellers ignore others. They stick to their own. I don’t think they’d pay much heed to Klaus unless there was a special reason.”

“All I did was mention the mates and suddenly he could have written me a storybook on that original spell.” Damon nodded at her.

“So the story of the original spell, must have been passed down. Why?” She pondered.

“In case grandma came back for more help?” Isabella mumbled. “In case Klaus found out and took revenge on them for their part in it?”

“Klaus didn’t even know anything about her or the rest of us until the spell.” Damon grunted impatiently. “There’d be no reason for them to fear he’d come after them.”

He sighed and rubbed his bottom lip with his thumb in thought.

“That guy could have burst into flames he was so excited about me being a mate.”

“And they were willing to try and take you down to get you to cooperate with them in exchange for ending the spell.” Bonnie sat down again, restless. “She said they wanted your body.”

He nodded.

“His body?” Ian asked and Bonnie nodded.

“Not his blood, not a favour, his body and I think they wanted him alive. Otherwise why not just kill you with magic where you stood. They were trying to incapacitate you before I began to chant for the winds.”

“So they need for you to be alive while they do…what?” Ian frowned.

“Damned if I know.” He sighed.

He stood up and exhaled, rocking Vida.

“I’m calling Anne.” He announced and Ian stood up and grabbed his shoulder.

“Damon, wait.” Ian implored and Damon shook him off and glared at him in challenge. “Look, she’s your baby, but I think the best thing for her would be to stay with us.”

“What are you talking about? We are in the middle of a war zone!” Damon argued.

“Exactly. You really think you’re going to be able to sneak her out of here without being seen, without getting caught? Everyone is after you!” Ian said exasperated. “If anyone found out what she is…they’d kill her.”

Damon almost gagged, appalled and Bonnie sighed and put her head in her hands. Damon looked to her.

“It’s true Damon.” Isabella said mournfully, twisting her hands together. “We are different. We understand what she is, who all three of you are and that you’re no threat to us, but other wolves don’t.” She looked at his face pained. “All they will see in her is a monster that shouldn’t exist, that shouldn’t be allowed to grow in case she is a threat to wolves.”

Damon swallowed hard and looked at Vida’s face. He knew it was true, he just couldn’t imagine anyone able to harm such an innocent. Had he killed any children? Yeah he had, but not babies. Would he have if it had amused him?

“Damon.” Ian said gently. “Isabella is dark haired and she won’t turn. I really don’t believe that those wolves will harm her and if they believe that Vida is ours…” he trailed off as Damon swallowed bile and fought his instincts to bear his fangs.

His eyes tingled and he fought down the urge to protect his progeny. Ian stepped back on alert and Damon squeezed his eyes closed and took a deep breath. Vida opened her eyes unhappily and gurned, feeling his emotion.

“If the worst happens, I have Anne’s number, but I think this is her best chance.” Ian advised and Vida dropped her pacifier onto the ground.

“We don’t know what the travellers would do.” Bonnie added. “If anything, Vida would be leverage against you.”

He nodded at that. He’d do anything the Travellers wanted if they threatened Vida. It made him weak. She was his Achilles heel.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Stefan closed his eyes, feeling the sun on his face. Strange how the light and heat brought no comfort what so ever today. Everyone kept saying that things would get easier. They were liars.

He sniffled and felt Flora’s fingers stroke through his hair. It was getting long now. He liked it but father said it made him look feminine. He was going to cut it off when he returned from the market. Tears slid down his cheeks and he turned his face into Flora’s stomach. He’d been draped over her lap with no worries of decency or ownership entering into his mind. Father said he shouldn’t be so physical with the servants unless he wanted to make himself a man. He didn’t know how hugging Flora was supposed to do that.

Flora’s stomach was warm and her smell was so much like mother’s had been. He felt more tears emerge and he choked on them. Flora cooed at him and began to hum to him softly.

“Hush angel.” She soothed and he curled up, as though trying to crawl inside of her for comfort. “Your momma’s in a good place now. She don’t feel no pain anymore.”

Stefan nodded and wept.

It had only been a few days but the pain wasn’t getting any less. Why did people keep saying he just had to wait and it would go away? They didn’t know. They didn’t know how much he loved his mother.

“S’just you and me now angel boy.”

Stefan turned to look up at her and she wiped his eyes with the fabric of her sleeve, cupping his cheek and sighing.  
“Do you really think she’s somewhere good?” He asked.

“I know it. She went to where all the good people go.”

“All of them?” His eyes widened and she smiled and nodded. “Won’t she be afraid to be going on her own?”

“No little master. All of her people who’ve passed will be there waitin for her. As she will be waiting for you some day, when you’re all grown and your grandbabies are grown.”

He began to daydream about that as she stroked through his hair and continued to sing to him. He’d see her again someday. How long would he have to wait?

“She’ll finally see her baby again.” Flora mumbled and Stefan looked at her.

“Damon?”

She paused in surprise and searched his face.

“Will Damon be there?”

“How..?” She frowned, cutting herself off and he sat up to look at her properly. “Where’ve you been snooping mister?”

“I had a brother, but he died.” He continued as though she hadn’t spoken and she sighed and drew him a look of displeasure.  
“Little noses shouldn’t be snooping into business that aint theirs.” She chastised and he felt tears well in his eyes again.

Now that mother was gone, he’d never know about Damon. Father didn’t want to speak of it and he knew he’d be beaten again for asking. 

Flora sighed and cupped his cheeks, softening.

“My angel.” She shook her head. “Sometimes it’s better not to know things.”

“But why?” He implored and she bit her lip.

“Tell me what you know.” She said and he swallowed down butterflies of anxiety.

He told her of finding Damon’s gravestone and his father’s anger and she bristled.

“Was he a bad person?” He asked and she held her bottom lip in between her thumb and finger as she exhaled noisily.  
“You know what a pact is?”

Stefan blinked but nodded.

“Ok then. We make a pact right here, that anything we talk about about Damon, stays between us. You understand mister?” She raised an eyebrow sternly and he nodded immediately.

“Ok.” She said, looking away from him as she deliberated.

“I came to help your momma with Damon. He didn’t take to his feeding well and your momma was such a fragile woman. She got sick trying to look after him and your daddy wanted her better. I took over with Damon and I nursed him till both of them were well and strong.”

Stefan listened in fascination.

“He was a rascal that one.” She smiled at the memory and Stefan smiled too. “He liked to run circles around me.”

“What was he like?” Stefan asked, squeezing her hands in his own.

“He was like any young boy, but he was devilish clever and good at telling what people weren’t saying out loud. It got him into trouble a lot.”

Stefan blinked, in incomprehension and she chuckled.

“Most folks don’t say what’s really on their minds, but your brother – he could read em like a book. His trouble was he couldn’t help but share it after.” She squeezed his hands back and gave a small mournful sigh. “Made your daddy mad.”

“Father said he was evil. That there was something in him.”

She studied his face carefully.

“Most folks are afraid of people who are bold Stefan. Not many people are leaders, but every now and then there are some born not to follow too.”

“Huh?” Stefan squinted and she chuckled again and shook her head.

“Your brother was as human as you or I, but he had problems following the rules. He had a wildness to him, and sometimes it makes people afraid. Leaders don’t like folks who think for themselves.”

“What happened to him?”

“He fell from a horse.” She said sadly and Stefan frowned, almost disappointed that his father’s tale had been the same.  
“What?” She nudged him. “What were you expectin?”

He shrugged.

“Never did find out why that horse threw him.” She mumbled, staring into the distance and he looked at her again.  
“Father said the horse knew that he wasn’t human.”

“What?” She frowned in disbelief and he nodded. “Well, no horse has ever explained itself before and never will, so you best be putting it all out of your mind now. Ok?”

Stefan frowned but nodded. She patted him and he stood to allow her to stand.

“Now, time for your schooling mister. Come on.” She said and began to move back to the house.

He followed behind her glumly, watching her skirts billow as she moved. He felt strange and disappointed. Strange feeling like that around her. She always made him feel better, but for some reason he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was fobbing him off a little. Did she know more? Why did everyone want him to move on and forget his brother?

He shook his head and looked towards the cemetery sitting on the edge of their land. How could he let it go?

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Eve felt herself near orgasm as she lay back into the grass listening to Nisha and Nathan laugh and splash around.

“Oh god…” she whispered, pumping Stefan’s manhood eagerly.

Nothing could compare to this sensation, to any sensation she’d had so far. It was amazing and she wanted it. Having sex with Nathan would be incredible. She was sure of that. He was so lean and muscular, so young and supple. She moaned out loud and sped up her movements, excitedly. What should she say to convince him to let her have him? How could she get on his good side before she left this body?

She closed her eyes, feeling her abdominal muscles contract. It was coming, it was coming! Fluid began to leak from her entrance. 

“I love you.” 

She smiled at the whisper and felt the hands upon her body once more. Such warm, gentle hands stroking her body. She arched her back slightly into the touch and felt lips upon hers. A passionate kiss, ending with biting along her jaw and into her neck. She brought her hands up and slid them down over her lovers back, feeling every groove and muscle flex as she did so.

Love.

She sighed and felt her heart squeeze. So much love…

She opened her eyes and looked up into depths of light blue – like the ocean and she stared in wonder. Black hair fell into the eyes and she reached up and held the face as she opened her legs wide. Kissing. She exhaled as she felt him enter. His kisses became more passionate and they rocked on the ground, concerned only with each other as her body sang in sensation.

He was deep inside but careful not to cause pain as he moved and she reeled and panted. So wonderful to feel a man inside of her again. She didn’t want it to stop. She felt her body give into the pleasure and she opened her mouth wide as her lover bit down into her neck and thrusted harder. She moaned in rapture and surrendered seed onto herself.

She opened her eyes wide and sat up, looking down. She had seed. She was a man right now. What had that been – a dream? She panted and wiped her hands on herself, disconcerted. This was getting out of hand. Clearly the man had been Damon. She exhaled and bit her lip. This body’s attachment to its mate seemed to defy rules of possession. It was going to be a problem. She had to block this out somehow and get Nathan under her or on her.

She shook her head. That wasn’t why she was here. She was here to kill Klaus once and for all, not to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh. This was getting out of hand. She intended for her descendants to be highly sexed but this was ridiculous right now!

She took a deep breath and looked out towards the water. She needed to be cleansed now, she was sticky and would smell pungent. She stood up, still trying to force an erection down and began to undo her shirt. Perhaps she should try and bond with these two more. Surely if they knew her plan for Klaus they’d help eventually. She could tell they had no allegiance to him. Stefan, however, they did. They clearly wanted him back. She may have to tell them of the harsh reality of Stefan’s life and his past wrong doings to show them what he really was.

She kicked her shoes off and took a step forward when she felt something choke her. She fell backwards, gagging and reached for her throat, feeling a rope there but it burned. It actually burned her skin. She tried to cry out but was muffled when a bag was thrown over her head. It smelled awful and each breath burned her nostrils as she fought. There were hands all over her, dragging her, binding her and she couldn’t fight. The burning was painful and was making her choke and cough. It hurt and she felt her vision blur.

She stopped trying to fight as her body failed her and heard the screams of Nathan and Nisha somewhere near. 

They were dying.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32 TH

“No! Please!” Nisha screamed as she watched them handle Stefan’s precious body.

They threw all three of them into the back of a van and locked the door. Nathan was hurt and bleeding and she was sure she had cracked ribs. Who the hell were these people and where had they come from? She crawled over to Eve groaning and removed the bag from Stefan’s head. The bag stunk of Vervain. She threw it aside and gasped at the burn marks all over Stefan’s skin.

“Stef…Eve? Eve?” She shook her and got no response.

Still, they hadn’t damaged Stefan’s heart and his head was still attached so his body must still be ok. Thank god! She began to weep in relief and Nathan sat up holding his abdomen. He was pale as a ghost and blood was seeping into his shirt.  
At least they’d been able to dress before they were dragged away. They had been tying their shoes when they’d heard Eve shout in distress.

“Nish.” Nathan whispered, his face contorted in pain and she turned to him and helped to put pressure on his wound.

“He’s…she’s fine. Stefan’s body is fine.” She reassured and he nodded in relief. “What was it?”

“Knife. Camping knife. Think it was mine from my backpack.” He gasped as she lay more pressure on.

“They must have found our camp and gone through everything. Why?” She ripped off the trim of his shirt and tied it around the wound as best she could.

“The scent. I think…” he groaned as she tied a knot over the wound, “think it’s the pack who attacked us during the moon.”

“What the hell is going on?” She shook her head.

He looked over to Eve and grimaced.

“They vervained her. Bet that was a little treat she didn’t know about.”

“Like a lot of things. How can she think she can take out Klaus when she doesn’t even understand how a vampire body works?”

“I think that’s going to start settling in pretty soon.” She agreed, wincing and holding her ribs as the van went over a pot hole.

“What do you think they want?” She asked and he chewed his lip.

“They attacked the camp when we were in wolf form so I reckon they were looking for Stefan and Damon. Damon said it was like they were creating a diversion, separating him from Stefan so grandma could make a play for his body.”

“But if they were working with her, why would they be kidnapping us now?” She frowned and he shrugged.

“Maybe it was a coincidence that she was trying to possess Stefan at the same time.”

“Maybe.” He postulated.

“Maybe they don’t know that she isn’t Stefan.” She added.

“Only one way to find out.” He nodded as the van slowed to a stop.

They sat back nervously as they heard the ignition switch off. Normally they’d be ready to go for whoever opened the door, but they couldn’t risk Stefan’s body being hurt in a scuffle and Nathan was in no shape to fight. They nodded silently to each other and tried to stay calm.

The door opened and they blinked at the sunlight filtering through.

“Fight and you die.” A large dishevelled man warned and they nodded.

“He’s still out.” She indicated to Stefan’s body and the man grunted.

“I’ll get him.”

“No chance!” Nathan growled and tried to block the way.

“You think I’m going to damage him?” The man laughed. “He’s worth a lot more alive than dead. Now get out of the way before I slit your throat as well as your belly.”

Nathan swallowed, knowing he was no match in this state and looked to Nisha. She nodded at him and he moved out of the way.

The other men joined them around the back of the van and pulled Nathan out first, keeping a hold of his arms and escorting him into a large run-down house. Nisha climbed out herself and was escorted similarly. She looked back to check that Stefan wasn’t being man-handled. The large man lifted Stefan’s over his shoulder carefully, almost cautiously and followed them.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
“Stefan!” Giuseppe shouted and Stefan sighed and sat his book down. 

His father had been trying to force him to learn how to ride their horses properly. He’d managed for years to get out of doing so, but with there being talk of a civil war, Giuseppe knew that he would need to be a proficient rider if he had a chance of coming back uninjured. Stefan didn’t agree.

“Stefan I will not repeat myself, boy!”

Stefan got up from his chair, dragging his feet as he followed the sound of his father’s voice to the rear door. The servants gave him a sympathetic smile as he passed them and he tried to return the gesture, but failed. He could feel the dread creeping in.

He stepped outside and Giuseppe nodded at him in command and began walking to the stable. He followed slowly, trying to fight down the impending feelings of doom and fear.

“You’re 16 Stefan. It’s ridiculous that you don’t know how to ride properly. You will come here every morning and afternoon between your studies and you will master this skill. Do you hear me?” Giuseppe snipped and Stefan nodded but paled, his stomach churning as he looked into the stable.

“Now, the thoroughbred will be yours, she’s good and strong. She’s fast. If you can learn how to ride her safely and still be able to maintain control over your weapons, you’ll be ready for war.”

Stefan’s eyes almost fell out of his head and he gasped. The thoroughbred?!! It was huge! It was for racing, he couldn’t ride that!!

“But father I…”

“No arguments son!” Giuseppe snapped and sighed.

Stefan began to hyperventilate as he took in the stature of the animal and Giuseppe took a deep breath to calm himself. He walked over to Stefan and squeezed his shoulders.

“I want you back from this war safe and uninjured son. You must learn how to fight and how to survive. This is the best way.” His tone was a little gentler and Stefan felt his eyes well up in fear. “You are clever son. You might survive on your wits alone, but being a good, confident rider will always save your life. You are my only son. I need you to come home from this.”

Stefan gave a nod and swallowed hard.

“Now, let’s get to it.”

Giuseppe opened the pen and they both entered. They’d always owned horses, since he could remember, so he understood how to ride. He had ridden a few smaller breeds briefly at his father’s command but he never did anything other than trekking – he never let the horses trot or run. Now father was forcing him to ride a racing horse. Even as he climbed onto the saddle and edged the horse onwards out into the grounds, his brain was screaming in alarm at him. He was going to die, he was going to die like Damon had died.

Giuseppe saddled up and joined him, so there was no escape – forcing Stefan to keep the pace as he slowly increased the speed.  
“We will do jumps also. In battle you may be on any kind of terrain. Jumping and running are a necessity.”

Stefan couldn’t even squeak an acknowledgement, the fear was too great. He held the reins so tightly the blood drained from them. The mare snorted at him, clearly picking up on how terrified he was. He clenched his legs on either side of her as he tried to hold himself on.

“Come on son, give her instructions. You are her master!” Giuseppe instructed but Stefan could only stare ahead and try to remember to breathe. “Now, keep up with me and control her, do not let her control you!”

Giuseppe called to his horse and slapped her sides with his feet and the horse bolted into a run. Stefan gasped and shook his head. Giuseppe looked back at him annoyed and angry.

“Move boy!”

Stefan let out a sob and clicked the horse’s sides and she flew into action. He immediately screamed and leaned forward panting, trying to hold on. 

“Find your balance Stefan, control her speed and hold on!”

“I can’t!!” He screamed again, tears blinding him.

He was going to die, he was going to die.

“Stefan for god sake..!” Giuseppe bellowed. “Stefan, steer her! Now!!”

Stefan closed his eyes as his life flashed before him – his sad, lonely life and the horse panted.

“Stefan, stop!!!” Giuseppe shouted and Stefan opened his eyes in time to see the remains of an old wooden fence. 

He cried out and tried to pull on the reins, but the horse whinnied, unsure of his instruction and jumped the fence. He tried his best to hold on, but fell and rolled onto his back with a thud.

“Stefan?!!!” He could hear Giuseppe but he couldn’t move an inch.

The sky seemed to spin up above him and he coughed, feeling his lungs empty of air. He wheezed, desperately trying to breathe some life into his chest. The horse was making sounds of distress and panting nearby. 

“Stefan?! Son?!”

Stefan coughed again and this time managed to breathe. He made a sound of pain and Giuseppe trampled over to him worriedly.

“Stefan?! Are you alright? Can you move?”

Stefan sobbed.

“It’s alright son, it’s alright. Can you feel your legs?” Stefan nodded. “Can you sit up?”

Stefan tried but grimaced at how battered his body felt. Giuseppe helped him into a sitting position slowly, checking him for broken bones and blood. Amazingly he seemed to be fine other than bruises already beginning to show all over him. Giuseppe hugged him and rubbed his back in an odd moment of tenderness.

“My boy.” He whispered and Stefan held him back. “What happened?”

“I was afraid.” Stefan admitted in a small voice.

“Of the speed?” Giuseppe continued to hold him and spoke into his shoulder.

“Of dying.” Stefan croaked and Giuseppe pulled back looking confused.

“What?”

“What if the horse thought I was a demon too?”

Giuseppe searched his face in horror before he made the connection to Damon and he closed his eyes and breathed deeply.  
“You’re no demon Stefan and you’re not your brother.”

Stefan began to sob and shook his head, pulling back from him. It had been years since he had mentioned Damon to Giuseppe. After mother had died, he had learned to follow Flora’s advice and know when to keep his mouth closed. Now though, in this moment, he couldn’t.

“He was just a boy. What if I am just like him father? What if the horses think that I am bad too?”

Giuseppe stood up and turned his back as Stefan wiped his tears away. He was a man now, he shouldn’t be displaying such open weakness.

“My grandfather, your great-grandfather was a harsh man Stefan. He was good at reading people. He always knew if my father or his brothers were lying or being deceitful. He understood how easy it is for a man to become an animal. He disciplined them all in that knowledge.” He paused and Stefan looked up at him.

“Within every man there is the potential for allowing the animal side to emerge and take over. I myself fight with my beast daily. Your brother embraced his and he would have gone to ruin had he lived. I could see it in him, the lack of restraint. He wouldn’t heed me. In the end even the horse knew that he was more than human.”

“What do you mean?” Stefan pleaded for a better answer than more nonsense about demons. “Father please, I am a man now and I should understand so I can control myself too.”

Giuseppe turned back to him with a weary look on his face.

“Yes. You are a man now and you deserve to know. The men in our family are cursed son. Those of us who give into their desires, fight and cause death to others, are taken over by their beast. They lose their souls to it.”

“We’re cursed?”

“Yes. One of my father’s brothers gave himself to his beast and he was killed once he was discovered. My father often spoke of what a good man he had been until the change, to highlight how each of us can be sullied. This is why I have been so hard on you, son. If you don’t remain pure, your beast could have you and then no one can save you.”

“How does it get them? What is it? A spirit?”

“Of sorts. It takes the shape of an animal. A wolf.” Giuseppe’s face drained of colour as he spoke about it and Stefan shook his head confused. “The beast takes over your body, breaking your bones and ripping your soul in two until it finds its home there.”  
“You mean like…” Stefan hesitated at the ridiculousness of his thinking, but continued, “a werewolf?”

He’d heard stories in his childhood of this alleged animal in books. They couldn’t actually be real though for god sake. The way his father was talking…

“Yes.” 

Stefan’s mouth fell open and he stared at Giuseppe unblinking as he tried to decide whether his father had lost his mind. Giuseppe looked to him and tightened his expression.

“Your brother was close to letting the beast take him and the horse knew it. Perhaps that horse saved my life that day when it ended his.” He spoke with absolutely no regret or remorse and Stefan slowly stood up, numb with disbelief. “As a man he would have taken lives, including mine.”

He didn’t know what to say. He felt as though this man, whom he’d known his entire life, was some stranger. He felt empty. He felt alone. 

He walked away, headed back towards his horse.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Damon turned onto his side. He couldn’t sleep. How could he, when his angel baby wasn’t with him? He’d begrudgingly agreed that it would be safer for her should it appear as though Ian and Isabella were her parents. It had been one of the hardest things in his life to leave her with them and come back to his empty hut. No mate, no baby. Bonnie and he had sat up trying to figure out a strategy that didn’t involve him falling prey to the travellers, but as he lay here thinking on it all, he realised that perhaps that was exactly what should happen.

Yes, he didn’t know what they had planned for him, but it certainly didn’t involve killing him – they knew that for sure. Did he really care why they wanted him, as long as they broke the spell and didn’t harm his pack? If they came looking for him, then there would be fatalities. Of that he had no doubt. It was pointless trying to figure out what they could be up to. He didn’t know anything about them and neither did Bonnie other than a few pre-cautionary tales from her grimoire.

He shook his head and sat up. He hadn’t bothered to undress, so he could spring to action at any moment. The travellers thought he was dying, so they must be looking for him right now. Every minute he spent trying to avoid them, brought them closer. They had their own magic. For all any of them knew, they might already know where he was and be planning their full on attack. They also had the other wolves to worry about too.

He reached for his cell. His natural response was to simply go ahead with his own plan and not bother telling the others. They could get in the way and get themselves injured. So much had changed though. These people were his allies now and they may end up being the ones to care for Vida. He dialled Bonnie’s number. Everyone would be in bed trying to catch up on sleep. It had only been a few hours since they’d last discussed what was happening.

Nathan? Alpha.

He waited for a few minutes, surprised at the lack of response.

Concern. Nathan?

“Where are you?” Damon chewed his lip.

Nathan cell phone hadn’t been answering either the past few days. Perhaps he’d decided to turn it off so any communications could be done through channelling and ensure grandma couldn’t listen in. Maybe he was asleep. 

He checked his watch. It was 4 am. That’s what it would be probably. Shame you couldn’t leave a message when channelling. He chuckled at that thought and got up out of the bed. Bonnie was going to be pissed but he should tell someone of his plan. He was going to go back and find out what the travellers wanted. Something was fishy about their interest. He’d called Klaus to tell him his plan earlier. He hadn’t been sure just how much to warn him about impending attack though. He’d simply told him that he’d found travellers who could sever the link to Toby and grandma and that he was going to make sure it was done.

Klaus seemed to be holding back also but he didn’t have the time to be worried about that. Klaus always covered his own back first and had so many skeletons in his closet they were insurmountable. 

“What?” Bonnie spoke down the line grumpily.

“Just letting you know, I’m going to the travellers. Keep Vida safe for me.”

“Wait, what?” She said irritated.

“If I go to them, they won’t cause any problems here. You know it makes sense.”

“Damon you can’t just go to them. We have no idea what they’ll do to you!” 

He could hear the rustling of her bedclothes as she got up. She was only a few huts away so he’d better be quick so she couldn’t come over and wake everyone.

“I’ll make a deal to make sure I can get out of there when they’re done.”

“Damon don’t you dare just run off and get yourself killed! You’ve got Vida to think about now. It’s time for you to start thinking!”

“Not asking for permission princess. Let the others know that I’ll call when I’m coming back.”

“What about the other wolves?!”

“You seriously think that only John is doing recon? These wolves were hard core. I bet they’re watching right now and if I’m gone – what’s the point of coming to you? They’ll just follow me right to the travellers. I’ll let them deal with it.” He said simply and she sighed heavily. “We always knew I’d be bait Bon Bon.”

“If you do this, you’re on your own Damon. I have to protect the people you leave here. I have to protect your daughter.”  
“Exactly. Forget about me.”

“And what about Stefan? If you die…”

“Then you’ve got Anne’s number to break the bond and if Eve won’t leave, you’ve saved yourself having to kill me to end her. Works out better for you this way.”

He put his leather jacket on and took a deep breath. He could hear that she was deliberating the logic.

“Nathan isn’t channeling right now. Call him when you get up and find out how they’re doing.” He instructed.

“If you don’t come back, I’m going to kill you.” She warned and he chuckled, feeling his chest squeeze for a second.

“Thank you Bonnie Bennett.” He said, swallowing emotion and he hung up.

He quickly blurred out of the hut and to his car, before she had a chance to raise the alert. He started the engine and pulled forward out of the camp and back towards the Travellers. He lay his phone at his ear and dialled Michelle’s number. He still hadn’t made the trade. He had her potion in his pocket still and he had no doubts that she’d therefore be helping the travellers find him to make sure she got what was hers.

“You can stop whatever you’re doing. I’m coming back. I don’t have much longer. Tell Marcus to be ready.” He said, not giving her a chance to respond and putting on a pained voice.

He hung up and sighed heavily. Hopefully they’d expect him in a sorry state – thinking he was near death and surrendering as a result. They wouldn’t know he was holding out on them. This was the right decision. He just needed a bargaining chip now.   
He drove around the back of the village and abandoned the car. Hopefully knowing he was coming had stopped them trying to track exactly where he was and it would grant him a few minutes of time to prepare.

He walked into the woods, using his vampire reflexes to ensure he made no sounds discernible to any humans. The animals still knew of his presence of course, animal senses were so attuned, but at least he didn’t have to worry about the travellers having those. Living with wolves had been helpful in training him in how different each species sense was. Living with wolves meant if you wanted privacy then you had to make sure you were invisible. It was like living with other vampires to an extent – but of course, he’d never really been a group bonding type of guy. Aside from living with Stefan for a short after they turned, he’d preferred his own company and hadn’t really lived or settled with many other vampires through his life.

He crouched, sniffing the air and honing. The travellers were expecting him back in the village - probably at Michelle’s place where he’d met Marcus the first time. So where would the camp be in relation to that? They must be near. He just had to find it.  
He moved around, climbing a few trees without making a sound or stirring a leaf, until he sniffed the smell of burning wood. He looked around and spotted a dull glow. Someone had lit a camp fire. It could be them. He was in the middle of backwater nowhere. The village was still a good 4 miles from here. Who else would be all the way out here? He jumped down onto the ground and headed in that direction. It felt good to be hunting again. His blood charged and he could feel his skin tingle. This was fun!

He heard voices and smelled food cooking the closer he got and he hid and listened. Women and potentially children here. Good. They’d be easily used as a bargaining tool. They wouldn’t be unprotected though. The women were just as formidable as the men with their magic. A child then? Yeah, if he could grab one…

He edged closer, seeing some tents illuminated from the inside. Nomads truly. He snorted and moved closer to one. The light from inside was useful for highlighting whether anyone was inside. There were child’s toys laying around outside of this one. Bingo. He smiled to himself. Easy.

There didn’t seem to be much movement from inside the tent so perhaps it was empty? He watched for a few minutes, seeing no shadow movement at all. He heard a few children playing and speaking to adults in a language he didn’t understand and he made a move. If he could get inside and wait for the owner of the tent, he’d be able to silence them before they had a chance to make a sound.

He blurred inside and stopped suddenly in surprise. A young woman was lying sleeping on some blankets and she opened her eyes as he looked down at her. He flashed his fangs and grabbed her throat before she could scream and hauled her up onto her feet. He clamped over her mouth and warned her to be silent as he growled and let his full vampire face emerge, when he heard a strange sound.

He paused and tuned in hearing another heartbeat in the tent. The woman began to weep in his arms as he looked around for a hiding place.

“Please don’t kill me. I’m pregnant.” She begged and he frowned and looked to her stomach, turning her around.

She was pregnant. So what did that matter? She was nothing to him. No one. Still…he found himself torn. No! He couldn’t think like this! She was a tool, something he needed to use – nothing more. Just another warm neck.

He grabbed her again and widened his pupils as she looked into his face in fear.

“Use your powers on me and I’ll snap your neck like a twig princess, you and your little backpacker in there.” He motioned to her stomach.

He exhaled and tried to think. There wasn’t much likelihood that he would be able to keep her as a hostage for long – not with all of them having their own magic. He’d already experienced how quickly they could have him down on the ground gasping. He had to have another plan.

He looked into her eyes again. She was still staring at him blankly, mid-compulsion.

“When I tell you to sleep, you will sleep until I tell you to wake again. Got it princess?” He smirked after she repeated it back to him, thinking on how fairy tale it was.

“Sleeping beauty.” He scoffed and she blinked, returning to normal again and tensing under his hold. 

He turned her around and walked her out of the tent to meet the others, who immediately stopped what they were doing on alert and began calling for aid. He held her secure as she cried softly and gave them a mischievous smile.

“Don’t you touch her!” A man stepped forward with a stake and Damon tilted his head like the confident predator he was.  
“Where’s Marcus?” He asked and the man licked his lips nervously and looked to the others for aid.

Damon held the girl’s throat and gave it a little squeeze and she gagged. They all aimed their weapons at him and shouted.

“Let her go. What do you want?” A woman said nervously – the same woman whom had countered him in the forest and tried to suffocate him when he’d refused to give himself over.

“About my spell. I’m going to need you to do that now please.” He smiled sweetly and stroked down the shoulders of his hostage as though stroking a pet.

The girl shivered in fear and he continued to smile.

“We can’t. Not without your help.” The woman answered, trying to appear more confident.

“Right, right, handing myself over. Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“It’s not a choice vampire!” She sneered. “We need your body to guide us to where the spell has to take place before we can do anything.”

Damon blinked and tried to suss her out. 

“Why?” He asked, releasing his hold on the girl a little as he heard the small heart beat inside of her belly grow a little distressed.

“Your body will be our homing pigeon. It’ll lead us to the original site where the spell was cast.”

“What does that matter?”

The woman exhaled heavily, unwilling to explain further and Damon let his vampire face come forward again and brought his mouth to the girl’s neck as she cried out. 

“No!!”

Damon made his face neutral and human again and cocked his head waiting.

“Our magic originates there. Without access to the source, we’re running out.” She admitted, pained as the others shuffled around feeling stripped and vulnerable.

Damon frowned and studied them all. They were running out of magic? How was that possible?

“So you’re telling me that your little stream of powers is running out? And you need me to find the oasis?” He scoffed and the woman’s eyes burned. “You’re not much use to me if you can’t do my spell lady.”

“And you’re line will be haunted forever by the original wolf if you don’t help us.”

Damon chuckled, thinking it over.

“That’s why you move around then? Looking for magic?” Damon taunted and they all grew restless and uncomfortable.  
“For centuries we’ve tried to find the source.”

“Why does my spell have to be done there?” He enquired.

“Because that was where our tribe began, where we originated. It’s the only site where there is magic strong enough to break a thousand year old spell.”

“That’s why you passed the story down generations and why Marcus nearly wet his pants when I told him what I was.” Damon realised.

“We’ve been looking to find a way to connect with your line for a long time.” She said menacingly. “Let her go and we can start the process to get what we all want.” 

“And how do I know you’re going to keep your end of the deal?”

“I give you my word.”

He laughed.

“I don’t give a crap about your magic Oasis honey. If you don’t break my spell, there will be none of you left to harness any magic anyway. Ok dokes?” He smiled again and the woman’s face grew red with anger.

A strange sensation began in his back and he cracked his shoulder blades as he tried to relax his muscles. Heat began to flow through him, into his skin and he felt himself perspire. 

“Get on your phone or whatever whalebone or shit that you use to talk to each other and get Marcus here.” He commanded, trying not to show discomfort as he felt his cheeks blush with heat.

He cleared his throat and frowned when he noticed the woman smile. What was she doing?

“What are you doing?” He gave a small growl and squeezed the young girl to him.

“Using my whalebone telephone.” She smirked and he exhaled as he felt his body temperature rise again. “Marcus is scrying for you, I reckon a little bit of focus on your blood might speed his journey here.”

He took a step back, still holding the girl and tried not to grimace as his body broke out onto a sweat.

“Stop it!” He growled and squeezed the girl to him, showing his fangs. “I’ll tear her throat out!”

“Then where will you be without your hostage?” A man’s voice spoke from behind him and he whirled around to see Marcus approaching, holding out his hand as though being led by it.

Damon flashed his fangs and bit the girl’s neck as she screamed. Marcus dropped his hand immediately and everyone cried out in fear. Damon let blood drip out of his mouth and down his chin, aware of how monstrous he would appear as a result. The girl wilted in his arms and he breathed harshly as the heat in his body began to recede. Marcus kept looking at the girl strangely, as though she was important. Ah. His daughter then?

“Maybe you should tell daddy to do what the big scary vampire wants.” He whispered in the girl’s ear and she sobbed, holding her neck.

“We’ve already told you we will do your spell in exchange for your help.” Marcus pointed out. “What more do you want?”

“A little certainty.” Damon spat her blood out of his mouth, feeling nauseous from its taste.

He turned her around to face him and stroked her face gently, almost tenderly.

“Sleep princess.” He said and he took his arms from her as she fell and landed onto the ground with a thud.

A few children began to cry and were hushed by the crowd as Damon looked up to Marcus pleased with himself.

“Now. We do your little quest, you break my spell and if you’ve been really really good little elves…I’ll wake her up.” He smiled.

“Undo this now vampire!” Marcus ordered, his eyes huge with rage. “Undo this or die!”

“Well you could kill me, but then you won’t find your little oasis will you?” He pouted sarcastically and Marcus looked to the woman behind Damon annoyed that she had told him. “Then you can kiss all of your magic goodbye. How sad!” Damon mocked, wiping a fictitious tear from his eye.

Marcus looked to the young girl on the ground, still bleeding and chewed his lip conflicted.

“Come on papa bear.” Damon encouraged and began to chuckle, when Marcus pulled a gun from his jeans and fired a bullet straight through Damon’s head.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33 TH

Stefan lay down the heavy cart panting. So many men had fallen today. He rested back against the wood, now foul with the stench of death and blood and he exhaled, fighting tears. War. He’d never realised how brutal it would be. Although he’d been afraid at the prospect, he’d never been prepared for the carnage, for the violence, for the evil of it. Now he knew why Giuseppe had exchanged money with one of the riders who’d come to summon him for duty. Giuseppe’s paranoia that if Stefan fell prey to evil, or was tempted to be anything but pure he would let in his ‘beast’, was motivation enough to prevent him being sent to the front line.

He closed his eyes as he remembered their last conversation before he’d left his home, perhaps never to return alive.  
6 months previous:

“Listen to me son, war breeds evil and ambivalence. You are a good soul. You’ll be more affected by the beast than other men. Don’t let it get you. Do you hear me? Now I have friends who will help bring you back to me. I want you to trust them, follow their orders. Don’t kill.”

“But father…”

“No, listen son. Killing is a sure fire way to let the beast in.”

“But we are at war.” He frowned, confused and distressed.

“If you are attacked, defend yourself like I’ve taught you but then run. Let someone else finish the job.”

“You want me to run like a coward?” He asked in amazement.

Everything Giuseppe was saying went against everything he believed about fighting for his country, his way of life. How could he run?

“Your position will be to aid in the healing of our men son. To be an instrument of medicine - just like you’ve wanted. Dr Lockwood will treat those poor souls suffering and you will help him.” He squeezed Stefan’s shoulders and maintained unbroken eye contact as he spoke.

Stefan stared at him wide eyed and speechless.

“You can be a doctor someday. Now is your chance to show your willingness to deal with blood and injury. When you come back, you can have made friends in the right places.” Giuseppe smiled but Stefan’s head spun.

Stefan jolted at the loud bang of a gun nearby and he ducked and looked around, his heart beating wildly. It was an officer shooting a wounded horse. He rubbed his face, no longer distressed and revolted at the sight of blood under his fingernails and stood up slowly again, as one of Dr Lockwood’s nurses called to him.

He moved away from his cart filled with bodies of the dead, feeling like a grim reaper and went to her, sheltering under the doorway to the medical camp.

“Nora?” He said in concern and she shivered and dipped her head as she sobbed.

He took her into his arms and patted her back soothingly.

“How many?” He whispered.

“All but three. All of those men…” she sobbed into his shoulder.

“I know.” He squeezed her.

“I don’t think I can do this anymore.” She broke away and wiped her eyes.

She looked so exhausted. She’d been here for almost 19 hours and he knew she hadn’t eaten during that time. She couldn’t bear to think that in the time it would take for her to feed herself or even have a short nap, one of her patients could die.

“You’re exhausted.” He stroked her face tenderly. “No one can continue on without sleep or food Nora.”

“Dr Lockwood can.” She gave a small smile and he nodded. “It’s as though he’s super human or something.”

“He’s just been a doctor for a long time.” Stefan nodded. “And he wants to set an example.”

“When I came here, I thought it was to heal the wounded, not watch them die. Not to have to hold them down while…” she put her hand to her mouth and Stefan hugged her again.

“I know.”

“How will I ever be able to sleep again? How will I be able to go home and act as though I am the same person I was?” She looked at him, pleading for answers and he had nothing to give her.

He couldn’t give any reassurance. He was thinking the exact same thing. Since he’d gotten here, he’d been in charge of carrying in the sick and wounded. He’d had to help hold down men who were screaming for their mothers, screaming not to allow amputation, screaming for comrades still on the field. It was as though he’d descended into the realms of hell and been swallowed by it. The life he knew – one of privilege, dinner parties, being a gentleman, were such a distant memory that sometimes he wondered if it had all been a dream.

“Salvatore!” A voice called and they both straightened themselves, brushing off their emotion as they’d learned to do and turned towards the doctor heading to them.

“Dr Byers.” Stefan said respectfully.

“Salvatore reports say there is another troop entering the camp with more wounded. We will be busy here. Nurse, get back to your station and free up some beds, we’re going to need them.” He turned to Nora and she nodded and slipped away.

He looked back to Stefan again.

“I know you’re tired Salvatore. We all are, but those men won’t stand a fighting chance at life unless you clear some of the debris.” He squeezed Stefan’s shoulder and Stefan gulped, nodding. “You’re doing a job that makes a difference, don’t forget that. You give these men back their identities.”

The doctor slipped away back to work again and Stefan sagged. Yes, he had to believe that. If there was no one to remove the bodies of the dead, then it was more difficult for the wounded to get here too. It was all he could do for these poor souls now. If they were left scattered, they may never be identified and then what would happen to their families? They deserved to be named, to come home, for their fate’s to be known.

He nodded at himself. He had to do this. Perhaps Giuseppe had been right. He had no training in medicine – he was too young, but he could still honour those who had fallen and that would bring some relief and healing to their loved ones.

He headed back to his cart, hurrying and lifted it again. They were lying the bodies side by side around the back to allow for checking of papers for identification and he had some in the cart to be moved already. He ran towards a body lying in the sun, already scrunching up his nose at the smell he expected to find. Who knew how long the body had lain festering. Time after time he’d found rodents amongst the bodies too. His stomach was made of lead now - he’d vomited so much in the beginning but now he was immune.

He sat the cart down and approached the body, surprised to find it looking so preserved. It didn’t smell and for some reason, although there were rodents around the cart, they seemed to be uninterested in this piece of flesh. He knelt down to inspect, in case life still remained – it wouldn’t be the first time he’d hauled a body into the cart to find them still alive afterwards. It was horrific.

“Hello, can you hear me?” He said as he shook the body, checking for life.

The black hair fell back and forwards over the man’s face as he shook him and Stefan bit his lip and placed his fingers to the neck to check for a pulse. He waited, looking at the man’s paleness. He did look dead, but yet he couldn’t find any sign of blood or injury. In fact, now that he looked closer, the clothes the body was wearing seemed a little odd too. He wasn’t in uniform. Had he been a deserter? A civilian? But then again if he were a civilian, why would he be this far out?

No pulse ticked under the skin and Stefan pulled back slowly and exhaled. Definitely dead. He made the sign of the cross over himself and said a prayer as was his routine. The priest tried to get around those still alive to give last confession, but the dead were too late for that rite. 

He stood up slowly and lifted the legs, dragging the body towards the cart. It was hard work lifting something so heavy on his own, but he was young and strong. The muscles he had built during these six months, already showed through his clothing and in his arms. All the boyishness about his appearance was gone forever and that wasn’t all that had disappeared forever. He had studied his face recently. He bore little resemblance to the boy he’d been before. His hair was blond from the sun now, his skin tanned and brown, but the biggest changes of all was to his overall facial appearance. He looked ten years older than the barely 18 years he’d lived. His face was furrowed with lines. He looked haunted now. The youthful glow of ignorance was lost. Would his father or bride even recognise him when he came home? If he came home that was. His father had rushed his marriage to the Elizabeth so that she might produce an heir, despite the talk around Mystic Falls of how young the newly-weds were. No one married at the age of 18. Giuseppe’s priorities were always for the family business and if Stefan didn’t come home, at least then Giuseppe would have a grandson to grow and take over. Giuseppe’s logic, as always, was ruthless.

He stopped at the cart and opened the back of it, ready to haul the body up by its arms and onto the pile, when it moved. He stopped completely, panting. Was he just imagining it? There had been no pulse. Had he not checked for long enough? Had he been too quick to assume? He lifted it again and the man groaned softly. He gasped and lay him back down, checking his face again and speaking to him.

The man’s eyelashes flickered and Stefan smiled and spoke to him again, urging a response. The man opened his eyes and looked at him confused.

“Can you hear me? Soldier?” Stefan asked and the man grimaced and coughed. “Where do you feel pain?”

“I…” The man coughed again and put his fingertips to his forehead and pressed as though searching for something.

“I’ll call for help. The doctor is nearby.” Stefan rose to stand when the man grabbed his hand and pulled him back down to his face, staring at him and searching his face as though for recognition.

“Stefan?” The man asked, seeming slightly delirious and unsure and Stefan frowned. “Stefan is that you?”

“I…” Stefan frowned again, unsure how to respond.

He didn’t know this man, of that he was certain.

“I’m sorry I don’t know who you are. Did my father..?”

“Stefan!” The man now gasped and grabbed him, pulling him down to his chest and holding him there in a hug.

Stefan fell into his embrace startled and patted the man, who appeared to be sobbing as his lungs wracked with breaths.

“Little blood machine, I thought you were gone.” The man said and Stefan pulled slightly out of his hold and the man released him, staring at him in wonder and affection which could only be described as intense.

Stefan shook his head, not wanting to appear cruel. Clearly this man thought he was someone else, another Stefan perhaps. Still, he’d never met another Stefan in these parts. There weren’t many other Italian settlers as far as he was aware.

The man pulled him down again suddenly and began to kiss him passionately. He panicked. What the hell was he doing?! He pulled himself away and stood up, shaking off embarrassment and confusion and the man frowned pained at the rejection of his movement.

“I…I’m sorry I’m not your Stefan. I’m Stefan Salvatore.” He said and the man simply continued to become more emotional and reached for him.

Stefan wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked behind him to the med camp. Clearly this man was in need of psychological help.

“I’ll get some help. Stay there.” He began to move away.

“No! Stefan!!” The man called urgently and tried to sit up, but couldn’t. “Stefan!”

Stefan got a few feet away and turned back to look at the poor man, when the man shouted out in pain and held his forehead again, falling back onto his back. Stefan exhaled and began to run back, when the man simply vanished before his eyes into thin air. Stefan halted, almost falling over and stared at the space where the man had been in disbelief.

He wanted to call on him, but he didn’t know his name. He wanted to call for help, from someone, anyone! But he couldn’t think what to call out. What had just happened? He began to hyperventilate. It was happening finally – the madness. He’d seen it happen to others. War turned some men crazy, crazy enough that they didn’t know who they were or who they were fighting anymore. Some had to be put down to avoid injuring themselves and others, some simply shot themselves in fear and confusion. Oh god!

He fell to his knees, trying to breathe. His mind was crumbling.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“Stefan!” Damon shouted as he opened his eyes to see a woman’s face above him.

He panted, feeling his head ache and burn at the forehead and the woman stood up, dropping a bloody bullet onto his chest abruptly. He panted, touching his forehead to feel the hole there. He’d been shot and she’d pulled the bullet out to waken him. But he’d seen Stefan! Stefan was somewhere in between life and death!

He sat up as the hole closed and looked around wildly. The woman sat down and stared at him, waiting.

“Who’s Stefan? Your mate?” She asked and he nodded before he could harden himself. 

He felt vulnerable, emotional and exposed. He had to rein it in, become old Damon. He threw the used bullet down on the ground and squeezed his eyes closed for a second to compose himself. Stefan was ok, at least he knew that for sure now. He might be reliving what looked like the Civil War from what he could tell, but he was alive and well somewhere. It’d have to be enough for now.

“How much longer do you have?” The woman asked and he looked at her, narrowing his eyes and tightening his facial muscles.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” He tried a small smirk and she clenched her jaw in anger.

“Your mate is dead. Unless you want all of this to be for nothing, you’ll tell me how much longer your body will have life in it, because if it doesn’t, your blood is useless to us.” She said irritated.

“Why not just take it all right now then? Why do you need me?” He countered and she shook her head.

“It’s the life in your blood we need vampire. If it comes out of you now, it’ll be dead when it’s needed. We need to incubate it.”

“Lovely.” Damon gave a fake smile.

“You made a big mistake coming here and attacking us. We can and will defend ourselves.” She warned.

“Good luck waking up sleeping beauty then.” He sighed nonchalantly and the woman tightened. 

Marcus came into the tent and stopped, looking at Damon with fury in his eyes. Damon smiled innocently at him in response.  
“Let’s get this started.” Marcus said coldly and Damon sat back on his elbows relaxed and raised his eyebrows.

Marcus looked to the woman and nodded. She withdrew a hunting blade from her pocket and tossed it at Damon. Damon caught it with his vampire reflexes and studied it.

“We need a quarter pint to begin with.” Marcus ordered.

“How exactly does this work?” Damon looked to him.

”All you need to do is give us your blood whenever I ask and it’ll lead the way.”

“Lead the way how?”

Marcus smirked, refusing to answer. The woman handed him a small bowl expectantly and Damon scrutinized them both.  
“You came to us vampire. Hurry up and let’s get this over with.” Marcus said and Damon sucked his bottom lip for a moment, before slicing his wrist open and tilting it into the bowl. 

The bowl filled quickly and Marcus moved to him and took it once full. Damon licked his wrist as it healed and caught the look of disgust emanating from the woman.

“What happens now?” He asked her and she nodded at Marcus as he left the tent with the blood.

“You’ll feel a pull. We follow it.” She said matter of factly.

“A pull?” He frowned.

“Just follow where it tells you to go vampire.” She stood up and pulled a backpack out from behind the log she was sitting on, fishing around inside. 

The contents almost jingled and he smirked, knowing exactly what was to follow. Predictable. She threw chains out onto the floor and hinted to him. He chuckled and shook his head.

“You expect me to wear those I take it?” He asked.

“You might need to. If you want us to break the spell you’ll have to have us with you when we reach the source.” She said blankly.

“And you think chaining me like an animal will stop me from ripping your throats out if you don’t?” He gave a warning smile.

“You might feel the urge to seek out the source yourself. The chains are to make sure that you don’t cut and run.”

“What the hell do I care about the source? I’m a vampire lady!” He snorted.

“We’ll see.” She snorted back at him and left the tent.

He lifted the chains and chewed his lip. They weren’t that sturdy. If these people tried to screw him over, he’d break out of them easily anyway. He reached from the manacles and clamped them on, realising there was a clamp for his neck too. He chuckled and shook his head, amused as he placed it around his throat and clicked it locked. If these people needed a little security from him then fine, as long as they did what he wanted.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“What do we do with these two?” A murmured voice said and Nathan tuned in his ears, concentrating. 

“What the hell did we bring them for anyway? Why not just kill them? It’s the mate we want.”

So they knew what Stefan was. That was worrying. What could they possibly want him for?

Nisha had fallen asleep through exhaustion and stirred in his lap. He ran his fingers through her hair comfortingly. This brave wolf had been through so much. She shouldn’t have come. She didn’t need this. He shook his head and held tight when he heard movement.

“We don’t kill other wolves. That’s the last time I’m going to tell you.”

“So what? Take the woman and keep her now?”

Nathan blood ran cold and stifled a growl. They could do whatever they wanted to him, but he wouldn’t let them lay a finger on Nisha. Not a chance in hell. Thankfully grandma would be able to look after herself in Stefan’s body.

“No, we don’t have the time for that. The pack is dying out. We need to do this quickly.” Another said.

What the hell was going on? Nathan closed his eyes and sagged back against the wall as he heard them opened the door to the room and enter.

“And what about him as well? Know what pack he’s from?”

“No idea. From the smell of him, he’s not part of the other pack.”

“He smells weird though.”

“Got that right.”

“Think he’s a mate too?”

“What difference does it make? He’s a dude. We don’t need anymore.”

“Yeah.”

“Think this will really work?”

“We have to try.”

“This one put up a fight. What should we do with them both while we do this?”

One of them came closer to him and he remained perfectly still.

“Give him a choice maybe. He’s a strong fucker. His wound has healed already.”

“Yeah, he can choose the woman or the vampire. Look at the way he’s holding her. No way he’ll choose the vampire.”

“Yeah. He won’t fight if we have the woman.”

“Agreed.”

“Ok then. Let’s do this before it wakes up.”

They drew closer and Nathan waited for his moment. He inhaled deeply as he felt Nisha stir, when he lunged at them all, knocking Nisha to the floor behind him. He flashed his human teeth and knocked two of them to the ground. Nisha quickly followed suit, giving as good as she got as they fought the men off fiercely. With these guys being wolves too, they were equally matched in strength.

Nathan punched and bit as hard as he could and a few fell crying out and injured, but there were just too many of them – ten in all. Too many for the two of them to win. Still, they had to try with all of their might. He broke a few jaws and head-butted until he felt dizzy himself before Nisha shouted out in warning. He looked around at her, expecting them to be holding a knife to her throat when she cried out in fear.

“No!!” She cried, looking towards the other room and Nathan looked in that direction for a second, only to be caught off guard by a blow to the back of the head.

He landed with a thud onto the concrete floor and grunted, the room spun and he blinked hard. 

“Don’t, please!!” Nisha shouted as Nathan lifted his head to see.

One of the wolves had a knife in Stefan’s ribcage and blood was dripping down his body.

“Just because we need it alive, doesn’t mean we won’t hurt it!” The wolves growled furious as he spat out some of his own blood from a broken nose. “You try anything again and I’ll make sure this guy feels pain like you wouldn’t believe. I might even amputate his legs!”

“No!” Nisha croaked horrified.

“Back the hell down!” The wolf growled and Nisha wilted into the hold of one of the others.

“Ok.” Nathan grunted in defeat.

One of them sat on Nathan’s back and tied what felt like barbed wire around his wrists. He groaned as it pricked at his skin and made him bleed. Nisha was thrown down onto the ground with a thud too and secured by a chain to the wall.

“Don’t touch her!” Nathan growled and received another blow to the head which knocked his face into the concrete and made him feel concussed.

“Behave yourself Beta.” The man behind him said. “Behave and we won’t touch your woman.”

Nisha looked to him and nodded in assurance and Nathan lay his face into the floor and closed his eyes. They needed help. They needed his alpha.

“Ok. Good job.” The man who’d stabbed Stefan’s body said as he lay Stefan back down on the ground and watched as the wound healed.

“Amazing.” One of the others said, moving closer to watch. “It’s really true.”

“Yeah. It’ll make strong cubs that can withstand injuries.”

“What?” Nisha whispered, watching them as Nathan blacked out on the floor.

“Do you think it will give multiples? We could really use that.” They continued to converse.

“We can try. We’ll need help caring for them. They might grow quickly but they’ll still be infants for a while.”

“What are you talking about?!” Nisha asked horrified as her spine began to tingle.

They looked to her.

“Survival.” The main man said and began to open Stefan’s shirt.

Nisha began to pant in panic. They couldn’t mean…

“Don’t worry. We don’t hurt or kill other wolves. You’re free to go as soon as we can transport it.”

She stared wide eyed and one of them actually seemed a little ashamed of what they were planning as he rubbed the back of his neck and lowered his eyes. The main man looked to her again.

“It won’t be harmed if you leave us alone Beta. Be safe in the knowledge that it’ll be saving a dying pack.”

“What are you talking about?!” She cried out and the main man looked to the others and hinted that they should leave the room.  
“You sure you can do it? It’s a dude.” One commented as the others began to leave the room.

“Means to an end.” The main one said and sniffed Stefan’s stomach, flicking his tongue out to taste his skin as Nisha’s skin crawled and she began to struggle against the chains.

“It’s fertile. We’ll take it one cub at a time and then swap over. You can have it next. If what I’ve heard about the gestation is true, it shouldn’t take long before you can have him to make another.”

“Stop! Stop it! You can’t do this!!” Nisha began to sob as she struggled. “You can’t force him!”

The main looked up to her and sighed.

“This is life or death.” He said and nodded to the other. “He’ll beg begging for it soon enough anyway.”

Nisha cried out loudly for Nathan, but Nathan was out cold and she could do nothing but watch as the man bit quickly under Stefan’s jaw line to activate a heat.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34 TH  
It had been a long day. Klaus collapsed into his armchair and sighed, closing his eyes. Something was going on with the wolves nearby. They all still feared that he’d turn them into hybrids and scarpered whenever he got near them. They didn’t know he’d now lost the ability to transform into his wolf-self, thanks to his agreement to be cursed again in exchange for the Salvatore’s and their pets allowing his return from hell. He shook his head. He was unsure of whether he should keep that secret guarded or not anymore. It was causing issues. Toby was growing more wolf-like in his abilities and senses every day and neither he nor Elizabeth understood the changes. He had been a wolf only briefly and Elizabeth had never triggered the curse while alive and so she had no idea how to be a wolf either.  
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He hated to admit that he was at a loss. He’d called a few psychics but they feared him like the wolves now, despite how much he warned them to obey him. The fact was that he had no friends. He’d never needed any anyway. Other people couldn’t be trusted. It was having power over people that had mattered and now he had less. Granted he had as much power as he’d had for a thousand years but his reputation had grown so much more with his hybrid ability that where people feared him before but still co-operated, now they simply fled.  
He needed help. Toby needed guidance. Add that to the strange call from Damon and he was at a loss as to what was going on. Damon was pursuing grandma’s link to their bloodline. What was the point? She was gone.  
“Hey.”   
He opened his eyes and gave a small tired smile as Elizabeth entered his study and sat down on the foot stool at his feet.  
“Where have you been?” She asked, searching face and frowning at the exhaustion lines.  
“Just making some contacts love.” He said reassuringly. “How’s Hawk Eye?”  
She gave a small smile.  
“Playing with some new toys. He crawled today.”  
“He did?” Klaus beamed and sat forward and she nodded.  
“He’s fast.” She commented.  
“He always is.” Klaus grinned and sat back pleased.  
“Soon he’ll be talking.” She sighed and looked to her hands, fidgeting.  
“What’s wrong love?” He asked, watching her concerned.  
“He will start to ask things soon. Start to notice more.”  
“Undoubtedly.” He agreed but watched her, reserved.  
“I’ve been thinking a lot about how we should go forward.” She said.  
He remained silent.  
“It’s going to be so difficult for him, being an only child, being a new species. There’s so much we don’t know about his body, what he can do.”  
“Yes.” Klaus nodded thoughtfully.  
That was exactly what he was trying to figure out, but no one of any consequence would come to him out of fear.  
“He loves you very much. I can see that.” She gave a small smile and he gulped hard, feeling anxiety churn in his stomach. “He’s going to need you.”  
“Yes.” He said, his heart beating a little faster in anticipation.  
Was this it? He’d been waiting for what felt like years for them to have this conversation.  
“Things are going to be confusing enough for him.”  
“Beth…”  
She shook her head to silence him and he closed his mouth again.  
“I loved Jack very much.” She said and looked down at her fingers again. “I love you too.”  
He held still and didn’t breathe.  
“I…” She struggled.  
“What do you want Beth?” He leaned forward.  
She gave a watery smile and exhaled.  
“I want you.” She whispered and he exhaled too. “Does that make me a bad person? A bad mother?” She looked at him sincerely.  
He frowned.  
“His father has only been gone a few months – not even a year and here I am…” she trailed off and Klaus grasped her hands and squeezed them, his eyes soft.  
“You’re close to a heat. I can smell it love.” He whispered and she blinked some tears down her cheeks. “It’s normal for you to feel like this before a heat.”  
“It’s more than that.” She shook her head.  
“I know.” He said softly.   
“I feel like I should be thinking of him right now. That I should think of little else, but I…” her voice cracked and he cupped her face as she sobbed silently.  
“You know how I feel. It’s not going to change love. One day when you know what you want…” he sighed and she closed her eyes, “...when you know what kind of man I am and you can accept me, then I’ll be waiting.”  
She let out a sob and he pulled her into an embrace, patting her back. She clung to him.  
“We should make preparations for your heat.” He kissed her shoulder. “I can find someone.”  
“No.” She groaned into his shoulder.  
“Beth, it’ll hurt.” He reminded and she pulled back from him to look at his face.  
He wiped her tears with his thumb as she breathed.  
“Share it with me.” She whispered and he sighed and shook his head. “Why not?”  
“Because if you were sure, we’d already have shared my bed by now. This is your heat talking.”  
She wiped at her eyes and sniffed.  
“It’s so much more than I expected. The need.” She mumbled and he nodded in understanding.  
“Last time you were an animal. Things make more sense when you are acting on instinct. Bring in human intelligence and it changes everything.” He soothed and she nodded.  
“How do I do this?” She avoided his eyes. “What about Toby?”  
“I’ll be here.” He reminded.  
She gave a short nod and looked to the floor, disappointed and embarrassed.  
“I don’t want a partner.” She said. “Not if it isn’t you.”  
He rubbed his eyes and tried to think. There were sex aids, he supposed. He’d never had to use any, but he’d seen shops of that variety around. Perhaps they would suffice for a heat?  
“I can get you some things that may help.” He advised and she nodded, blushing.  
“Thank you.” She almost squeaked.   
“It won’t be long now.” He said, rubbing her arms.   
“Don’t leave me.” She whispered in anguish.  
“Never.” He vowed and she was roused from her thoughts by Toby crying in the distance.  
She rose and went to see to him and Klaus sagged into his chair again. He deserved a medal for that performance! Why was it that everything in his life always seemed to come to a point at the one time? It was as though his life was a huge crescendo of music and change right now and he was a lost sailor adrift upon its wave. When would he fall from his boat into the clutches of the watery death beneath him?  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Damon grunted, falling forward as his feet seemed to carry him on their own journey. He panted, squeezing his eyes closed. Feeling a pull was an understatement! It felt as though his veins were strings and he was being pulled by them like a puppet by an invisible force.  
“Come on vampire, stop fighting it.” A man, following behind him said and Damon stopped and snapped his fangs at him.  
The metal clasp around his neck tightened suddenly and he gasped and grabbed at it in fear. It choked him and he coughed trying to draw in a breath. Marcus came to his side.  
“Those chains will protect us from your abilities. Don’t fight us or the spell or you’ll kill yourself and you’re tribe.”  
Damon fell to his knees gasping and growled in anger, but the metal was alive. It had its own magic. The harder he fought to break the collar, the worse he was choked. He fell onto his back, the breath leaving his lungs completely and he caught a glimpse of fear from the eyes of one of his ‘followers’. They were clearly as worried about his continued existence as he was. They needed him alive or his blood was useless.  
Marcus finally approached and lay a hand of Damon’s shoulder.  
“Relax and breathe. The chains can tell of any ill intentions you have towards us and will continue to assault you if you are violent.”  
Damon rolled onto his knees and hung his head trying to concentrate, digging his nails into the dirt beneath him as he tried to clear his mind of vengeful thoughts. He thought instead of Stefan, living some strange life somewhere, of Vida – so strong and full of life she’d be walking soon. He wanted he and Stefan to be there for that, not to miss that – to survive. Gradually the collar and chains began to release him and he drew in deep steady breaths.  
Marcus helped him to his feet.  
“Lead the way.” He instructed and Damon looked to the rest of the group following him.  
Although they were travelling on foot, they were carrying the rest of the camp with them in stretchers, one held the young Sleeping Beauty. It made sense though. If they were looking for some kind of Eden then they’d undoubtedly want to stay there once they found it.  
The pulling sensation began again and he turned his vampire eyes to the direction he was being drawn. The pull felt so tangible and yet he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. He blurred off in that direction, feeling compelled to move quickly and the rest of the camp ran to try and follow him. As he got to the clearing of a wooded area he felt the chains pull and he stopped and waited. Christ he felt like he was on a leash!  
Marcus caught up to him, surveying the area and Damon scowled at him angrily.  
“We’re not going to get very far if you keep me on a damn leash!”  
“This is for your benefit too vampire. If you lose us along the way, you won’t get your spell broken.”  
“You’re too slow! I need to move faster!” Damon growled, frustrated and Marcus sighed and rubbed his chin, thinking.  
“If I put a locator on your chain, we could still find you.” Marcus said and Damon nodded at that idea. “Be warned though, if you try something…”  
“What could I possibly do?” Damon huffed moodily, pulling at the collar and Marcus searched his eyes.  
“Fine.” Marcus waved his hand over the chains and mumbled some words Damon didn’t understand. “Go. Find it. If you don’t come back to get us, we will find you.”  
Damon smirked and moved to leave when Marcus grabbed his shoulder.  
“Blood.” Marcus said and Damon blinked. “We need more. A great deal.”  
“How the hell am I supposed to go be your little discoverer if you leave me bone dry?!”   
“Then hunt if you must, but be quick.” Marcus gestured towards the forest. “None of my tribe!”  
“As if I could!” Damon spat again, indicating to the collar.  
He blurred off into the woods until he was far enough away to stop and breathe. He hadn’t been lying. He was hungry. He’d drank a few bottles back at the camp after putting Vida down to sleep in Ian’s cabin, but he’d surrendered a lot of blood to the traveller’s since then and it was showing in his limbs. He felt tired. He just had to hope that he could find this ‘source’ quickly and get back to the camp alive afterwards. He had no doubt that the traveller’s had other ideas what to do with him once he’d accomplished his task. Hopefully, sleeping beauty would be valuable enough for him to bargain with.  
Nathan? Alpha, family, need help.  
No response. He frowned again. Nathan couldn’t simply be asleep anymore. Something was wrong.  
He tried to focus in on Stefan and then remembered, cursing himself. He couldn’t let grandma into his head, besides, she should be with Nathan anyway – unless she’d hurt him. Could grandma have killed Nathan and Nisha?  
He leaned his head against a tree and tried to think. Who else was there? The traveller’s had his cell. He couldn’t call Bonnie either and he could only channel certain distances to other mates. Shit.  
Nathan you better not be dead.  
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“Call yourselves wolves!” Nisha screamed in horror. “You aren’t even men! Real men wouldn’t rape!”  
The main wolf had closed the door to the room where Stefan lay, so that he could have privacy for what he had in mind and it made Nisha all the more motivated. She couldn’t let this happen, she couldn’t bear to witness something like this, hear it…  
“Simmer down!” A man entered their room, aggravated.  
He was the one who’d shown a hint of shame earlier.  
“How could you?” She sobbed, shaking her head and he flicked his eyes to the closed door of the other room.  
“It’s just a vampire.” He said irritated.  
“He’s a person! Can you really sit here and listen while this happens?”  
“I have to! Our pack is dying and we need children!”  
“What are you talking about?” She fought with the chains behind her.  
“A curse. None of our women can carry to term. We keep losing the babies and some of our mates in childbirth.” The man said, strained. “We need this guy to give us children. He has them so quick and they grow…”  
“How do you know that?” She demanded.  
“I saw their kid. It’s a few months old and it’s almost walking!” He shouted, a tone of jealousy in his voice.  
“How..?”  
“Not all of us joined the witches in their Klaus killing plan, but don’t think they didn’t ask us.”  
“The witches who came to us?”  
“Yeah.” The man nodded. “We knew it’d never work. Klaus is…he’ll outlive god. Doesn’t mean we didn’t watch what happened afterwards.”  
“You stood by and let them almost slaughter us?” She gasped, thinking on the battle where they’d had to kill the army of vampires and he blushed in shame.  
“You chose your fight.” He said simply.  
“I chose to honour the lives of my mate and son! I fought in their memory! If you really were there, then you’ll know just how like me Stefan is.” She hinted towards the room. “He’s a wolf too. His cub is wolf.”  
“Exactly. But she’s stronger, faster and she’ll survive birth. So will the cubs we make with him.”  
She shook her head horrified again. Their logic was sound to them. They’d thought about this, planned, watched their camp to make sure they knew what they’d be getting. All along they’d watched Stefan to make sure that he would be able to give them what they needed.  
“You’re just going to make him a baby factory against his will?” She felt like vomiting.  
“It’s not like he’s one of us. It’s not like he’s a woman.” The guy brushed off her reaction.  
“So raping him is ok because he’s a man?!” She fumed and the guy shook his head and took a step back as Eve moaned through the door.  
They both looked to it, adrenaline charging.  
“Please, don’t be a monster. Even if he does produce a baby for you, what kind of pack will you become? As soon as you begin to believe that rape is ok, what’s to stop it happening to someone else? What if one of your men decides he wants to try the same with one of the cubs once it’s grown? What if it was your mate, your daughter?”  
The man scoffed.  
“What will you tell the cubs once they grow up? How will you explain what you did?!” She spat, revolted. “How will you be able to look at yourself in the mirror after you’ve had to rip him open to birth? Once you’ve listened to him scream in pain and call out for his mate?”  
The man licked his lips, grimacing at the imagery.  
“Once you break the code of right and wrong, all hell will descend. Look at Klaus – he doesn’t even know right from wrong anymore!” She spoke quickly, terrified to imagine what was happening behind that door.  
“Shut up!” He growled and she sat forward to stare at him intently.  
“It’s wolf, not just vampire. It’ll die without its mate and you know it. It’s bonded already and you can’t ever break that.”  
“I don’t need to bond with it. Just to fuck it and get what I need.” He spat back at her.  
“You’ll have to force it. Its body belongs to another and it won’t lie back for you!”  
“Then I’ll chain it down until I’m finished!” He shouted back and she shook her head as he called through to some others.  
Three of them carried in a contraption and although she wasn’t sure exactly what it was, she felt her blood run cold nevertheless. It was what appeared to be wooden stocks – like those from the olden days where people would have their heads and hands popped through holes in the middle so they couldn’t move and be settled in the town square for people to throw foul things at them.  
She looked to them in fear, her heart pounding in apprehension.  
“I won’t hurt it ok? This’ll make sure of that. I’m not a bad guy, I just need a kid.” He said.  
She watched, her mouth agape as he knocked at the closed door and called to the alpha. The door opened and they carried the contraption in. She stood up and moved as far into the centre of the room as permitted, to see what was happening.  
She gasped at the sight. Stefan was naked now and beginning to blink awake, but the heat was upon him and he was covered in a thin layer of sweat. It would make thinking difficult for grandma. They set the contraption down and opened the top section to reveal the half-moon sections where they intended to place Stefan’s head and wrists.  
She began to hyperventilate as they lifted the now moaning and confused Stefan and put him in place. They lowered the top half of the wood and sealed him into the structure and she began to weep and pull at the chains as they assembled Stefan’s body on its knees, legs apart to expose his entrance. This structure was to hold his body in this position for easy access for sex. It was like something from a snuff movie.   
“Good work.” The alpha grinned and hinted to them all to leave. “Get the woman out of here.” He added, noticing her looking.  
“Eve! Eve!! Wake up! Wake up!!!” She screamed in fear and Eve lifted her head a little. “Eve they’re going to rape you!”  
“Get her out of here!” The alpha barked and all four men closed the door behind them and grabbed her as she shouted and struggled, biting at them with her human teeth as they unlocked her from the wall.  
They carried her outside and pilled her into the van, locking it behind them as she got to her feet and pounded on the door, shouting for help.  
“Nathan, please!” She fell to her knees and cried, scratching her nails down the metal door.  
Nathan stirred in all of the commotion and lifted his head, immediately vomiting at the pain in his head. He gasped, breathing loudly, when he smelled Stefan’s fluid. He grimaced and tried to hold his head when he realised his hands were bound by barbed wire. He sat up trying to figure out where he was and what was happening.   
“Nish?” he whispered and looked around.  
There were sounds of struggling and fighting nearby and he blinked heavily. He heard a whimper and looked to a closed door. Eve. Where was Stefan’s body? He heard a soft reassuring tone coming from behind the door and he tuned in his ears.  
“Just relax.” The voice said and there was another whimper.  
“Eve?” Nathan whispered and stood up clumsily, fighting the barbed wire.  
He approached the door and smelled the unmistakable smell of heat and he suddenly realised what was happening. He threw his body at the door, calling Eve’s name, but the door barely moved at all.  
“Eve! What’s happening in there?” He called out in fear.  
The other wolves rushed in, hearing the commotion and restrained him as he fought like a wild dog to get out of their reach. His hands were too tightly bound!  
“What are you doing to her?!” He shouted and received a punch to the head which made him crumple and vomit again.  
“Did he say her?” One voice said.  
“Put him in the van too. Let’s just get rid of them. Alpha will be balls deep in the vamp by now anyways, he won’t care.” One said and Nathan roared in outrage and fought wildly again.  
Eve, fight him. Don’t let him touch you!!  
He channelled desperately as he was dragged from the room too, outside into the air.  
What?  
He received back and he focussed his mind again.  
They are forcing a heat. You need to fight!  
Why?  
Because he’s going to rape you, rape Stefan!  
He was thrown into the back of the van, on top of Nisha and locked in. Nisha frantically began to speak to him, trying to free his hands but all could concentrate on was channeling.  
Sex?  
Yes, he’s going to force you!  
But I want sex.  
Nathan gasped and widened his eyes and Nisha cupped his face.  
“No!” He croaked.  
“What? What’s happening?” She cried.  
“She’s going to let him. She’s wants him to.” He almost vomited again and Nisha stared at him in horror.  
“No! Nathan you have to…” she trailed off, unsure what Nathan was supposed to do?  
Eve had been masturbating. Nathan had noticed the increase in her pheromones while they’d been in the woods. The mates were highly sexed so it hadn’t been a surprise – so stupid of him to think it amusing rather than dangerous that grandma was enjoying that aspect of Stefan’s nature. What the hell were they going to do?  
“We have to stop her! It’s not her body!” Nisha threw herself at the door again and Nathan shook his head, trying to think.  
Eve, danger, rape, evil, they’ll hurt you, beat you…  
No response this time.  
“What am I supposed…I…” he panted, looking to Nisha.  
Then he knew what to do. He sucked in deep breath and closed his eyes, tuning into her again.  
I want you, mine!  
He channelled and waited, fear clenching in his stomach as he summoned the memories of his time with Stefan when they’d been under the spell and mating. He sent her every touch, every lick and moment of pleasure they’d shared and Nisha sat spellbound, watching his concentration.  
You are mine! Sex, breeding…strong wolf cubs.  
He felt a shimmer of interest along their connection and he summoned his inner wolf, tilting his head upwards as he let out a wolf howl. Nisha sat back quietly as she realised what he was doing.  
“I hope you know what you’ve gotten yourself into.” She whispered.


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35 TH

The man hovered around her, scenting the back of her neck and making small bites – preparing her body for sex. Eve melted against the wooden stocks, making small moans of pleasure at the touch. No one had touched her like this for a very long time. She could scarce remember actually. Stefan’s manhood was hard and leaking, the body flushed and wanting. She wanted this. Wanted it badly.  
The man moved behind her and slid a finger inside of her entrance and she let out a gasp of wonder and desire. Oh god that felt good. She couldn’t figure out why Nathan was so distressed. So what if she satisfied this urge? She should be allowed to, it felt natural.  
“God you’re so wet.” The voice hummed and her legs were pushed wider apart as he prepared his member.  
She could hear the movements of his hands against it and it excited her all the more. She keened, pointing her rear up for him to mount when he brought his mouth to the side of her neck. She froze a little, confused. The smell wasn’t right. She turned her head a little to smell his scent and wrinkled her nose. Something was off. Something was missing. She couldn’t fathom what though. He licked her neck and bit with his teeth and her body awaited something, some rush that it had had before. Somehow the biting didn’t satisfy. She frowned and grunted at him to bite harder. Why wasn’t this good?  
The man chuckled at her insistence and bit harder, but it just wasn’t enough. Then she realised. This body expected to be bled. Damon was a vampire and they would feed from each other during sex. That’s what was missing. This man didn’t smell like Damon, because he wasn’t. He wasn’t the body’s mate.  
She opened her eyes as she thought on that. It was unnatural to breed someone else’s mate – it was against their laws as wolves. It was…unthinkable. The desire in her belly continued to persist however, simply making her feel confused and somewhat delirious. The urge to submit and breed was so strong.  
He positioned the head of his organ at her entrance and she waited, trying to tune back into the mood of it all. The man licked up the back of her neck one last time and whispered in her ear.  
“Give me a son.”  
She felt fluid slide down the inside of her legs and she closed her eyes.  
I want you, mine!  
She opened her eyes at the channelling.  
You are mine! Sex, breeding…strong wolf cubs.  
She let out a small gasp as she felt Nathan above her, inside of her, touching, licking, breeding…oh god, orgasms, pleasure, love…What was this? A memory?  
She immediately threw herself backwards, trapping the wolf under her as he shouted in surprise. She heard a howl of want and claim from outside and both of them looked to the window in surprise.  
“Motherfucker!” The man growled, trying to get her off of him.  
She grinned, feeling Stefan’s fangs fill her mouth.  
Yesssssss.  
She channelled back at Nathan. Nathan was her model of a good wolf. She’d wanted him all along. She’d take every ounce of seed he had and birth better wolves.   
The man pushed her onto her side as she struggled with the wood and grabbed the hessian bag which had burned her face and choked her at the water side. She looked to it in fear.  
Use Stefan’s body. Be a vampire!  
Nathan commanded, feeling her fear and she smiled in realisation. This body was vampire too, stronger, faster…She blurred away as the man tried to jump on her and she laughed in amazement at the strength in this body. She looked at the wood holding her in a crouched position and broke it as she pulled her arms apart. She laughed again as the wolf stared at her in fear.  
Her fangs elongated and she growled, breaking the last of the wood from around her neck. The wolf took a step back as the door battered with the sounds of the other kidnappers calling to him from the other side. She licked the fangs, pleased at their sharpness and lunged for him, tearing his throat out instantly. She laughed as she bit. The fangs were so sharp, they cut through his tissue like butter.  
The door broke inwards and the others shouted and came at her with weapons and hypodermic needles. She smiled confidently at them and ripped through them until there was nothing but blood and body parts all over her.  
She panted, feeling wonderful and alive and looked around. She’d never felt so strong.  
She felt her inside tingle, the heat continuing its attack on her and she sniffed deeply. Nathan. Where was Nathan? She licked her lips at the thought of licking the hairless skin of his chest, of taking him into her mouth. Stefan’s erection throbbed and she stepped over the bodies towards the door. She stepped out into the air and sighed as she felt the wind blow through the hairs on her arms and legs.   
She honed in on the van, hearing the sounds of Nisha’s attempts to open the lock from the inside and she strode towards it. She ripped the door off and Nisha fell back into Nathan. Nathan was quiet and avoiding her eyes.  
“Breed me.” She growled and Nisha stood up and looked to Nathan behind her nervously.  
Nathan looked to Nisha, gulping.  
“Nathan…” Nisha whispered but bit her lip, unsure of what to do now.  
Nathan stood up, looking towards Eve with dread in his face and Eve frowned and growled low in her throat. What was he waiting for?  
“It was the only way.” Nathan mumbled to Nisha and she nodded in agreement, but fell back looking mournful.  
Nathan stepped out of the van and Eve grabbed him forcefully and licked his neck.  
Breed me…  
Nathan held her back, trying to calm his racing heart. He’d known he’d have to go through with this when she escaped the wolves but now that he actually had to do something…all he could think about was how embarrassed he felt in front of Nisha. He didn’t want her to see this.  
Eve pulled at him impatiently and he growled in command and dragged her away back into the woods, where they’d have privacy. His heart pounded in his ears every step of the way. Could he really do this now? It had been the only way to stop grandma from letting Stefan’s body be abused, but this wouldn’t be much better. What would Damon think? Would he understand? Would Stefan?  
He threw Eve down onto some soft grass and she opened her legs wide, watching him intently.  
Strong, pure wolf cubs.  
She channelled and he gulped, remembering what she had said to him about the spell – about how she’d allowed Vida to grow inside Stefan because she’d thought that Vida might be his cub. She’d wanted Nathan to be Stefan’s mate to start a new stronger bloodline of wolf.  
He threw himself down on top of her and growled, pinning her wrists down and she arched up against him in delight at how rough he was.  
“Was it true?” He asked and she grinned and gyrated. “What you said about Stefan and I?”  
“What?” she chuckled, rubbing Stefan’s manhood against Nathan’s groin and awakening his own.  
“That you wanted Stefan for me. You thought he was having my cub so you let it survive because of that?” He asked and she paused for a second and searched his face.  
He growled, leaning down to her mouth and showing his human teeth in command for her to answer and she opened her mouth a little.  
“Do you want it to be?” She whispered seductively and he tightened the grip on her wrists until his fingernails dug into the skin and drew blood.  
“Tell me!” He growled, low and dangerous and rubbed his clothed erection against hers.  
“Mmmn!” She gasped and arched into him again and he sat up, releasing her hands and stared down at her.  
“Is anything you’ve said true?” He asked and she frowned, annoyed at the loss of contact with his body. “Is Vida alive because of you?”  
She huffed, annoyed at his change of subject and flipped them over so she was on top of him now, grinding against him. Nathan struggled to sit up and she grinned, pinning him down now. She began to lick around his throat as he struggled.   
If you won’t have me then I will make you, my lovely wolf.  
She channelled and he grunted and tried to roll them over again. Damn Stefan’s vampire strength!  
Eve felt the desire to bite begin to take over and she nestled into his neck and shoulder and bit down. He cried out as she drank a mouthful. The taste was horrible though. Horrible and bitter and she pulled up from him and moved away to vomit it up, leaving him to hold his neck in pain. She emptied her stomach, remembering this sensation of lurching well. She panted, her head spinning.  
“You don’t want me Eve. You want Damon.” Nathan panted.   
“No!” She growled, outraged.  
“That body is mated. You know what that means.” He reasoned, sitting up and trying to clear his head of nausea.  
She shook her head angrily. Mated bodies could only satisfy each other. That’s why the smell of that other wolf hadn’t seemed right.  
“You coward!” She spat, turning to him with Stefan’s fangs out and he stared at them in fear. “Why do you never take what you want?! I am laying him out on a plate for you! I always have!”  
Nathan frowned in shock at her words. Did she truly have no concept of love?  
“What happened to you to make you so cold?” He whispered and she frowned now. “Have you never loved anyone?”  
She turned her face away from him and shivered, feeling the heat intensifying. She scratched at Stefan’s chest in discomfort and tried not to think on his words. She had loved someone once. Her first mate. She hadn’t thought about him for a long time. She shook her head to dispel the memory.  
Nathan slowly came up beside her and lay a gentle hand on her back. She jolted in surprise and looked to him.  
“Even you being in there, won’t change how much their love connects them Eve. I’ve fought with it.” He admitted.  
“You wanted him. You have feelings of love?”  
“I probably always will, but not like Damon’s. They can’t live without each other.”  
“They don’t deserve love. They are vampires. They have killed.”  
Nathan slowly lifted one of her arms and she looked at it in query. She was covered in the blood and gore of those wolves she had just eviscerated. She felt nausea seep in again and she gulped it down. What had she done? She looked to Nathan, torn and confused and he nodded.  
“There are lots of reasons to kill – yours was justified, but do you see how easy it is for vampires? How little control Stefan has when it begins?” Nathan asked and she squeezed her eyes closed.  
Nathan stood up and she looked up at him.  
“It isn’t the first time you’ve killed either.” He pointed out and she frowned. “You took innocent lives because you felt it was necessary. Who’s to say that you are any less guilty than Stefan was?”  
Her breath caught in her throat and she stared down at the ground.  
“Stefan tries to make amends.” Nathan mumbled.  
“I love you. I love all of my children. I am here to save you!” She blurted, her emotions tangling together like spaghetti, making her feel unstable and vulnerable.  
“If you really did, you’d let us get on with our lives. Klaus is no threat to us anymore.”  
“Not to the mates.” She said, standing up. “But to the rest of your kind he is and always shall be!”  
Nathan shook his head and sighed.  
My body is on fire!  
She groaned.  
You started this, so you will finish it.  
She channelled and he opened his eyes in time to see her charge at him. He gasped as he was knocked onto his back and winded. She wasted no time, removing his jeans as he struggled for breath.  
“No!” He coughed and she pinned him down again.  
You want me, just relax and end my heat lovely one.  
Nathan stared at her horrified and channelled her images of Stefan and Damon making love from when he’d guarded them during the spell. Eve grunted, trying to ignore them and Nathan let out a cry of desperation as she moved to insert him inside.  
I’m sorry Stefan.  
He shed a tear and thought of how everyone would react to this. How Nisha would feel about this happening, when Eve stopped and stared at him. He exhaled and looked to her in surprise and she scanned his face.  
“Nisha.” She mumbled and he exhaled again. “You…are thinking of her.”  
“What?” He asked and Eve crawled off of him, still staring at him.  
“Better. That would be better.” Eve mumbled to herself and began to masturbate.  
Nathan sat up slowly, confused and watched as she struggled to satisfy Stefan’s aching manhood. She had been a woman. She had no real clue as to how to satisfy a man’s body. She began to sob in frustration and Nathan pulled his jeans back on.  
“I need…I need…” she looked at him in misery and he nodded, knowing exactly what Stefan’s body needed.  
“I know. We’ll find him.” He said. “Stop.” He advised and she looked at him.  
He swallowed nervously and made her lie down.  
This is for Stefan’s body. For his health.  
He channelled and she nodded, her eyes widening as he took Stefan’s manhood into his hands and began to work it. She gasped and arched, opening her mouth. Nathan blushed. This wasn’t strictly allowed either but then he could see how far gone the heat was. There was no way they’d make it back to Ian’s camp before it drove her nuts. He had to help vent it somehow.  
He concentrated on his movements and she began to pant excitedly and moan, until she emptied into his hands. She panted furiously and slumped into the grass beneath her and he continued gently until there was no more seed. It’d do for a little while.  
She closed her eyes with a smile on her face and he removed his jacket. He had tissues inside so he pulled them out and began to clean Stefan’s groin. She made small moans of pleasure throughout and opened her eyes when he was finished.  
“Let’s get you back to Damon.” He said and she nodded.  
He helped her stand up and put his jacket around her shoulders. It wasn’t ideal. They’d have to remove clothes from the building of corpses. They were half way back to the van when she paused.  
“What’s wrong?” He asked and she looked at him with a strange expression.  
“No.” She said and he raised his eyebrows. “I have things to do.” She said as though suddenly remembering what all of this had been for.  
Nathan opened his mouth to argue, when she blurred away into the woods suddenly. He called out after her and ran as fast as he could to follow, but it was useless. Stefan was too fast. He panicked, running back to the van calling on Nisha now and she rolled down the window in the driver’s side in surprise.  
“She’s gone! She took off!” He panted, jumping into the other side with her.  
“Gone where?”  
“I don’t know. I almost had her coming back with us for Damon, when she remembered her plan.” He said vexed.  
“What do we do now?” Nisha asked, starting the engine. “Where do we go?”  
“We can’t follow her on foot, she’s too fast. We’ll have to go to Klaus.”  
“What?!” Nisha cried out and looked to him as though he was insane.  
“It’s the only way. We know that’s where she’s going.” He reasoned and Nisha’s heart began to race.  
“I can’t…He…” She began to tremble with both fear and hatred and Nathan pulled her into his arms and held her.  
“I know. I’m so sorry Nish. I just don’t know what else to do.” He said and she began to sob. “I won’t let him hurt you.” He promised and she pulled back, shaking her head.  
“That’s not what I’m worried about.” She snapped, tears rolling down her face, but she wouldn’t reiterate.  
She lurched the van forward, heading onto the road as Nathan looked to her for a follow up response, but it was clear she wouldn’t give one. He pulled out his cell, hesitating. Was this the right decision? Eve had warned against any interference in killing Klaus, but then Stefan had begged for them to tell Klaus that she was coming for him, so he knew it wasn’t him.   
Eve had been clear in their bargain. If they didn’t interfere with her plan, then she would give Stefan back. That was the deal. If they went to Klaus right now, would it make her do something crazy? Still, she was crazy right now anyway – the sensations of a real body were proving to be taxing on her unbalanced mind.   
He took a deep breath. He was out of his league.  
Alpha? Alpha are you there?  
No response. What was happening with their communication?! He slammed his hand on the dashboard and Nisha looked over in concern.  
“Damon’s not answering my channeling.”  
“What does that mean?” She asked and he shrugged. “Ok then. Decision made.” She said in a determined tone and nodded at him.  
He nodded too and dialled Elizabeth’s number. He hoped to god that she was still with Klaus or at least would know where he was.


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36 TH  
Everything seemed grey and dull to him. Quiet, colourless and muted. After the best part of a year at war, he was coming home with no more answers as to why there couldn’t be peace, than before he went. He’d left a young man, afraid but sure that he was fighting righteously for his way of life, for society’s norms and traditions – things he was raised to respect and live within the confines of and truly he’d never found himself doubting the integrity of the way things were, until he’d seen how frivolous it all was. How foolish and worthless it was in comparison to life and death.  
His father’s friends had indeed sheltered him from the front line, from the certainty of death at face to face combat, but he’d stared into its eyes nonetheless. In fact he might have seen less death had he been at the front line and killed, than he witnessed in that medical camp. After a while the ridiculousness of fighting a war to uphold values that were frankly outdated and discriminatory, seemed so…pointless. In the end none of the men he tended cared. All they knew was fear and death and the fact that they were too young to die. They hadn’t been ready. It wasn’t fair.  
“Stefan.” Giuseppe called softly and placed a careful hand on his shoulder.  
Stefan looked up at him, slightly dazed from sleep deprivation and daydreaming and blinked.  
“It’s time, son. Time to meet your son.” Giuseppe gave a smile and Stefan blinked again and stood up, leaning on his father as he struggled with his walking stick.  
He’d almost lost a leg in the course of duty but they’d saved it. It gave him pains however and he now needed a cane to help support it. They had said that it made him a hero, that it was a badge of honour. Somehow that had never sat right with him. As far as he was concerned now, he was simply a cripple. Thankfully he returned home to wealth and family. He was lucky. Luckier than so many others he’d known. Nora, his dear friend, hadn’t made it home at all. She’d caught smallpox from some poor patient and had come home in a box.  
Nothing had been the same after that. He hadn’t been able to shake off the fear and hopelessness. It seemed like god was laughing at him, at all of them. If you didn’t get shot or stabbed or die from amputation and shock, then disease and starvation may get you anyway.  
Still, he had survived and he had to try and keep his head in the now. He had a wife and a new child to care for somehow. Giuseppe promised that he would be able to forget the horrors he’d seen. A little brandy went a long way. Time would heal.  
They walked up towards the stairwell, where the maids were moving around carrying in fresh hot water and towels – all excited and wound up at the same time. It had been a long time since there had been an infant in the house.  
Stefan leaned on the bannister and pulled himself up gradually until he was atop the stairs and Miss Flora appeared. She beamed at him and hugged him, whispering congratulations.  
“Is it..?” He croaked, overcome with emotion, “Is he ok?”  
She chuckled and patted his back, pulling back to cup his face with her hands as she had done since he was a small child.  
“She is wonderful.” She smiled and he gave a huff of surprise and looked towards the bedroom.  
“She?”  
“Yes sir. And she’s a beauty, just like her daddy.”   
Giuseppe ascended the stairs behind him and Stefan turned to him with an amazed smile on his face. Giuseppe gave a small one. He had hoped for a grandson. It was clear. Still, Stefan wasn’t going to let him ruin this moment. He had a baby girl.  
Flora guided him into the room where Elizabeth lay, now covered and propped up with pillows. She looked exhausted. The maids cleared the soiled sheets out of the room and past him and he moved to his wife to see their little angel. He sat down at her side and the baby gave out a cry, reaching its hands out of the blankets it had been wrapped in.  
“Can I hold her?” He asked and she carefully handed the bundle over to him.  
He looked down at the tiny face and the baby opened its eyes and gazed at him.  
“Hey there.” He whispered. “I’m your dadda.”  
He rocked her and she yawned and continued to stare at him.  
“What will you call her?” Elizabeth asked softly, feeling the urge to sleep fast approaching.  
“Vida.” He smiled looking to her and Elizabeth raised her eyebrows and chuckled.  
“Where did you think of that?” She asked and he frowned for a second as he thought on it.  
He shrugged. He had no idea, the name just popped into his head and felt right.  
“Her hair is so black, it seems Italian enough.” He said.  
“I like it.” Elizabeth said and closed her eyes, drifting.  
“Master Stefan, Miss Elizabeth needs some sortin.” Flora advised, popping her head around the door and he nodded, looking down at the baby again.  
“Can I keep her with me a while?” He asked and Flora put her hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow.  
“If she starts fussin…”  
“I’ll bring her back up. I just want to look at her for a little while.” He smiled down at the baby and cooed.  
“Ok then. Five minutes.” Flora nodded and beckoned him out of the room.  
He rose carefully and limped out of the room. Giuseppe was down the hall in Stefan’s room smoking. He walked inside, his eyes the brightest they’d been since he’d been home and Giuseppe couldn’t help but soften to the sight.  
“A girl, father.” He beamed and Giuseppe gave a nod and a smile and set down his cigar.  
“This is your nonno, Vida.” He whispered to her and handed her over to Giuseppe.  
Giuseppe stared at him for a few seconds unblinking, before looking down at the bundle.  
“Vida.” He mumbled and Stefan moved to his sideboard to pour them a bourbon to celebrate.  
“Yeah.”  
“Not Lillian?” Giuseppe looked to him and Stefan’s smile faded a little.  
“I just thought that maybe it was time for a change. A break with tradition. I want her to be her own person.”  
Giuseppe chewed his lip and sat down, rocking the bundle as she gurgled.  
“It’s not just tradition Stefan, it’s in memorial. It’s respectful.”  
Stefan sat his glass down, turning his back and clenching his jaw for a second as he tried to calm himself. Since coming back from war, Giuseppe had grown harder to please and for a change, Stefan wasn’t willing to simply agree and do as he was told. He wasn’t a child anymore. He was a man and a man who’d lived more in the past ten months than his father could possibly know. He couldn’t be pushed back into his life as the submissive, good son anymore.  
“Her name will be Vida father. Mother would have understood.” He said, sipping down a mouthful and exhaling at the strength of it.  
“Stefan…”  
“Enough!” Stefan barked and Giuseppe fell silent.  
The baby began to cry and he turned around and moved to him, taking her back and bouncing her.  
“She’s my daughter and I will decide.” He said.  
Giuseppe’s expression grew tight with displeasure and Stefan left the room.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Damon sweated as he made his way towards the pull. They’d all been walking for a few hours following him close by. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and exhaled.   
“How strong is the pull?” Marcus appeared beside him and he jolted in surprise.  
Marcus wasn’t letting him out of his sight. He groaned, knowing what was coming. Whenever the signal weakened it meant he needed to give them more blood to strengthen it again.  
“Why does this damn spell need blood to work?” He grumbled, offering over his wrist.  
“Because part of the magic which created your condition, came from the source.” Marcus said, filling his ceremonial bowl as Damon fought nausea.  
“Just as well I’m already dead.” He tried to smirk but Marcus looked at his face and frowned.  
“Do you need to hunt again?”  
Damon closed his eyes and sighed. The travellers didn’t know that he only fed from his mate and he wanted to keep it that way. He shook his head.  
“You look drained.” Marcus commented, waving his hand over the bowl until the blood within seemed to glow.  
“I’ve just got skin like porcelain.” Damon smirked again.  
The new pull almost yanked Damon off of his feet before he could say anything else and he immediately took a few steps forward and scanned the area. Marcus watched him closely. He began to move, blurring a few feet in that direction to make sure he was going the right way. Marcus ran to catch up.  
“We’re almost there.” Damon mumbled, still scanning the area.  
“How do you know?”  
“I can feel it, it’s…” Damon frowned, trying to describe the sensation. “I just know.”  
“Then go, find it and wait there. I’ll follow your blood.” Marcus mumbled a few words over the bowl and the blood again glowed.   
“What am I even looking for?” Damon grumbled.  
“Hopefully, you’ll just know.”  
Damon huffed, narrowing his eyes at him and then blurred away, running as fast as he could to close the distance. He needed to find this source now or he wouldn’t have the energy to get home or fight these people.  
He ran into a dense wood and stopped, panting and looked around. He felt strange. Was it the spell? It normally felt like he was being pulled by his veins, but this felt different. He sniffed and zoned his vampire eyes in. He couldn’t see anything.  
He turned his head slowly, his fangs elongating in challenge. There was something here. Something hunting. He let out a small growl of warning, when he felt a strange sensation in his chest. He looked down and touched it. He was damp. He frowned, losing concentration as he pulled at his shirt to inspect himself. What was..? Oh god.  
He cried out in fear when he saw the milk. He was lactating. That meant only one thing.  
“Stefan!” He gasped.  
Someone had triggered a heat in Stefan’s body! He had to find it, find Nathan. Why hadn’t Nathan called? What the hell was happening? What was Eve..?  
He was thrown onto the ground in a heap before he could blink and coughed as a weight landed on him. He opened his eyes and raised his arms, snapping his jaws at the attacker when he saw the greenest of green eyes staring at him.  
“Stefan?” He whispered and Stefan growled low in his throat, baring his neck.  
He rolled them over, sticking his face into the crook of Stefan’s neck, smelling some of the roses and bit down greedily. He grabbed at Stefan’s muscles as they struggled against each other, the heat of their desperation growing as he realised that Stefan was naked. He drank, filling his belly hungrily as though he was starving. The blood was hot, delicious and fresh and he closed his eyes in peace as he restored his strength.  
It wasn’t until he pulled his mouth away and sighed, that he looked into those green eyes again and remembered the stranger behind them. He frowned and pushed Eve back, away from him. She blinked heavily, having felt the effects of the blood wave.  
“What the fuck are you doing?” Damon breathed, struggling not to react to the glorious smell of heat coming from Stefan’s body.  
“I’m hungry and you need to finish this.” She said and took a hold of Stefan’s manhood.  
He pushed himself into a sitting position and stared at her in horror.  
“Are you fucking nuts?! How the hell did this happen?” He demanded.  
“I wasn’t the only one who wanted Stefan’s body.” She said, wiping sweat from her forehead. “Your mate is fertile. A pack came to breed him.”  
Damon saw red and he threw himself at her and gripped her throat tightly as he flashed his fangs at her.  
“What have you done?!”  
She coughed but seemed to enjoy the aggression from him, holding his hand and looking up into his eyes as he fumed.  
“This body responds only to you.” She breathed seductively and he blinked, trying not to inhale the sweet scent of the roses too much. “You need to end the heat.”  
“You really are crazy if you think I’m going to touch you!” He spat, his eyes tingling.  
Eve suddenly flipped them over and pinned Damon down in the same manner she’d done with Nathan and Damon punched her hard in the jaw and sent her falling onto her back. He panted, standing up. It was easier than he thought to punch her even though she looked like Stefan. Perhaps it was because Stefan’s body would always heal and her presence inside of it changed the face a little. It was hard to describe, but when looking at Stefan’s face you could tell something was off.  
Eve groaned, almost in distress, holding her jaw and curled into a ball on the ground. He stood up and looked down at her waiting. He wasn’t sure what to do. If Stefan’s body was in heat, then he could be compromised. Add to that that Stefan would want to know what had happened to his body while he’d been…away. It would be distressing for Stefan if he was raped or tortured or anything of that nature, even if he wasn’t present to remember it.  
But he couldn’t end this heat. That would mean having to have sex with her. Even though it was the body he knew and loved, she was in there looking back at him, feeling him touching her. No. The thought turned his stomach.   
He shook his head.  
“Get out of there now and I’ll end the heat.” He ordered and she uncurled and looked to him, her face flushed red.  
“I can’t.” She said.  
“Get out!! Forget your dumb ass plan to kill anyone!” Damon roared, venting some of his frustration at her finally. “You don’t even know what you’re doing! You can’t even function for a few days in a body anymore…”  
“Finish this or die!” She yelled loudly and he paused scrutinising her.  
“Or what? You’re going to kill me grandma?” He chuckled. “If I die, so does that body.”  
“You think I don’t have enough power to kill your baby?” She hissed and he paused again. “You think that I don’t have friends who know exactly where she is and how to get to her?”  
“Yeah, you’re the big bad wolf!” he laughed cruelly. “Just look at you.”  
She sat up, her eyes gleaming with rage and power.  
“I let her live this long because I knew you’d jump through whatever hoops I needed you to when this time came. You will do whatever I say or I will have her dead and buried before the sun sets.” She said straight faced.  
His heart hammered loudly in his chest as he stared her out, trying to figure out if anything she was saying was true. Nathan had said that she’d been trying to mess with him earlier. Was that what she was doing now too? Was she lying? Could he take the chance?  
He took a deep breath as she stood up facing him in challenge.  
“Go to hell lady.” He said simply and she dove for him.  
They battled, crashing around into trees and falling over. Damon fought with everything he had but his fear of actually killing Stefan’s body by accident, meant that she had the upper hand. She smashed him against a tree, breaking his back and he gagged at the impact.  
“I will be satisfied.” She growled and tore into his throat savagely.  
He cried out and tried to push her back but he couldn’t feel his legs anymore. He struggled to no avail as she drank on and emptied him of so much of his blood that he sagged against her, falling into her embrace with his head on her shoulder. He closed his eyes and let the darkness take him.  
His eyelids felt so heavy, his body was a ton weight and he groaned, struggling to open his eyes. He heard sounds of someone moving nearby and he turned his head slightly and fluttered his eyes lashes. He was in a strange room. He groaned again, fighting for consciousness when he felt something cold draping across his forehead. He sucked in a deep breath and opened his eyes, staring up into, not the eyes of grandma, but to a young woman with blonde hair and brown eyes.  
“Where..?” he croaked, even the act of talking making him feel faint and whoozy.  
That bitch grandma really had drank her lot!  
“Just relax Thomas. You’re safe.” The woman cooed gently and stroked his face.  
He closed his eyes for a second and exhaled, trying to get his brain to work.  
“The doctor will be in to see you in a minute.” She advised and he looked at her again.  
“Where’s Eve?”  
“Is that your wife?” She asked and he exhaled and closed his eyes again. “I’m afraid no one else was  
brought in with you Thomas.”  
“Why do you keep calling me that?” He frowned.  
“Isn’t that your name? It was on your clothing.” She said, surprised and moved to a chair next to   
him to lift up his Tommy Hilfiger jeans.  
He shook his head, looking at her wide eyed. He tried to sit up but he had no energy whatsoever.  
“Where am I? Where’s Stefan?” He demanded.  
“You mean Doctor Salvatore?” She paused, surprised and his eyes widened.  
She came around to his side again and slid her arm under his neck and back to help him sit. He felt   
as weak as a kitten, completely vulnerable. She gave him a small, kind smile and propped him up with a few pillows, until he could see the room. He must be back wherever Stefan’s soul was. But where exactly was that?  
“He’ll be in in a minute. You know him well? Did you serve together?” She made polite conversation as Damon studied the room, looking for an indication on what year it was, how much time had passed since he’d seen his Stefan last.  
“You could say that.” Damon mumbled in response to her question.  
“What’s your name and I’ll let him know?” She chirped.  
“Damon.” He said automatically, but bit his lip afterwards.  
Should he have given his name? There could be a chance that he could remind Stefan who he was though. Maybe if he could snap him out of whatever this weird parallel life was, then somehow they could work together.  
“Last name?” She looked to him.  
“Sal…Hilfiger.” He looked to his jeans.  
Better not to rouse any suspicions or confuse people. After all, he, Giuseppe and Stefan had been the only male Salvatore’s’ in Mystic Falls at that time. Small town people knew that.  
“Ok. Be back in a minute.” She smiled again and left the room.  
He relaxed back into his pillow, his mind whirring. He’d ended up here before when he’d been shot in the head by Marcus. So, when he died he came here? Why? How was that possible? Was this place some kind of limbo? If so, how did he end up finding Stefan both times? Perhaps because they were mated? Soul mates?  
He sighed, wishing that that was the answer. It would be so comforting to know that no matter where Stefan went, he’d be able to find him anywhere even in death.  
His heart beat hard as he heard footsteps coming along the corridor, except something was a little off about the steps. One of the feet was dragging and…supported by a cane of some kind. He closed his eyes again, ignoring it. By the look of the room, only a few years had passed since the Civil War and Stefan would still be young, not an old man with a cane.  
The footsteps moved nearer and into his room and he opened his eyes to ask for water, when he saw Stefan, or some version of him he’d never expected to see. His eyes opened wide as he took in his appearance and Stefan had a similar reaction, dropping his cup of water and staring at Damon as though he were a ghost.  
“Stefan?” Damon tried to sit up again, but failed.  
How could this be Stefan? He looked older, much older than he should have – his hair was dull in colour and his skin was duller too. He almost looked black and white. He looked exhausted and troubled. Damon looked over his body, frowning when he saw the cane and taking in the way one of his legs was slightly shorter in appearance.  
“It’s you.” Stefan whispered and their eyes locked. “The man from the battlefield.”  
Damon didn’t know what to say. Clearly, Stefan remembered their last encounter but still not who he was.  
“I thought you were a hallucination.” Stefan cautiously approached him, lifting his chart from a side table and trying to pull himself together.  
“What happened to you?” Damon asked, watching every flicker of emotion on Stefan’s face.  
“I could ask you the same. Mr…” Stefan looked down at the chart.  
“Stefan, it’s me.” He couldn’t help the desperation in his voice as he reached out his hand and lay it on Stefan’s arm.  
Stefan looked at him, studying him.  
“How do you know me?”   
Damon felt himself sag into the bed again and he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Stefan didn’t know him.  
He felt emotion stir in his chest and he frowned, trying not to vent it. He needed his Stefan, just for a minute. It felt like months since he’d looked into those loving eyes. He felt so alone.  
Stefan watched the strange man sag into the bed in distress. He looked like he was pained. The man withdrew his hand from his arm. He sighed quietly. Whoever he was, he was clearly lost and looking for someone – the same person he’d been looking for those years ago. He took a seat beside him and gently lay his hand on top of his. The man opened his eyes in surprise and turned his head to look at him. His eyes were full of longing and love.  
Stefan gulped, not understanding. Could he simply look like this other person who shared his name?  
“I’m sorry I’m not him.” He said. “How can I help you?”  
Damon shed a tear and closed his eyes again. Stefan sighed frustrated. Who was this person and how had he managed to disappear from him so completely last time they’d met?  
“What are you?” Stefan whispered and the man turned his head to look at him again. “You vanished.”  
“So did you.” Damon whispered back.  
“How did you get here? Where are you from?” Stefan pressed, squeezing the man’s hand tighter and seeing more emotion set in the strangers’ eyes. “You look…”  
“Like I haven’t aged since you last saw me?” Damon asked and Stefan sat back a little in his chair.  
That wasn’t at all what he’d intended to say but now that the subject had been brought up, he studied the man’s face. Indeed he did still look exactly as he had that last time, still as pale. Perhaps time had simply been kinder to him.  
Stefan chewed his lip and averted his eyes as the strangers’ stare began to feel too intense. His eyes were such an intense and unusual colour of blue. It was startling.  
“You really don’t know me? There’s nothing…nothing about me that seems familiar?” Damon croaked and Stefan patted his hand and stood up, reaching for the chart again.  
“Let me see what I can do for you.” Stefan took on his doctor persona and moved to the end of the bed.  
Damon sagged into his pillow again. How could he give his memory a shock? How could he get through to him?  
Stefan studied the chart and sat it back down, looking over Damon’s body closely. Damon remained silent and watched him. So Stefan was a doctor in this reality – just liked he’d wanted when they were human. Something about that warmed Damon a little. Perhaps Stefan was happy here?  
“I’m just going to check a few things ok Mr Hilfiger? Just to figure out what’s brought you here. I can see you’re very pale and possible anaemic so I just want to check for any wounds ok?” Stefan said and Damon just nodded.  
Perhaps touching him would help bring their energy together.  
Stefan moved to the side of the bed again and with kind eyes, asked Damon if he felt any pain. Damon shook his head. Stefan removed the bed clothes and Damon looked down to see he had been bathed and dressed by a nurse. Stefan’s hands were warm as he examined him. Damon shivered under the touch and bit his lip when he became erect. Stefan, being a professional, didn’t react to it and simply continued until he was certain that there was no injury to have caused any blood loss. He drew the blankets back over Damon when he was done and tucked him in.  
Stefan reached into his pocket and withdrew a stethoscope. Damon bit his lip. Stefan would be able to pick up on the fact that vampire hearts beat differently and his wouldn’t be normal therefore. Stefan opened the buttons on Damon’s shirt and placed it onto his chest to listen.  
“Breathe in and out for me.” He instructed and Damon did so, his heart fluttering in hope the more Stefan touched him.  
Stefan seemed satisfied that his heart was normal and Damon frowned and caught his hand again in confusion. Stefan looked to him and raised his eyebrows.  
“It’s…ok?” Damon frowned and Stefan seemed confused.  
“Your heart is good and healthy.” Stefan replied and patted his hand away gently. “Just relax for me ok? I’m just going to check your pupils.”  
Damon sucked in a breath. What did this mean? Was he human when he was here in this place? Stefan tilted his face up towards his, so that he could look into his eyes.   
“Follow my finger please.” Stefan said gently and Damon could only hold Stefan’s gaze, unable to follow the instruction.  
Stefan tried a few more times to get him to comply, before he stopped and searched Damon’s eyes deeply. Damon reached out and touched Stefan’s arms, slowly stroking them as their eye contact remained unbroken.  
“Stefan, remember me.” He whispered and Stefan seemed a little entranced in his eyes. “I love you.”  
After a few seconds, Stefan blinked and seemed to come back to himself. He pulled back and apologised. Damon let him move away. Something had happened there. He knew it. Something in Stefan had connected to him, even if briefly.  
Stefan rubbed his eyes and cleared his throat, standing up and grabbing the chart to note down his findings.  
“One last test Mr Hilfiger.” Stefan seemed rattled and was blushing. “Can you open your mouth for me?”  
Damon did so and Stefan avoided his eyes as he cupped his chin and pulled his bottom lip down to see his gums. Damon held his breath. Stefan nodded and frowned, releasing him again and returned to his chart.  
“Well, it appears you are suffering from an iron deficiency. You’re blood level isn’t as high as it should be but there’s no cause of blood loss that I can see, so I want to try an infusion.”  
Damon blinked at him.  
“It’s still experimental but I think I can replace some of the fluids you need.” Stefan was talking shop now and Damon began to feel faint again.  
Was that damn wolf drinking from his body in the other reality again?   
Stefan seemed to notice his weakening and moved to him again in concern. He slid his arm under Damon’s neck and removed the pillows to lie him flat again, elevating his legs with the pillows he’d removed. Damon’s eyes rolled in his head and he groaned.  
“I will figure this out.” Stefan vowed as he placed the damp cloth on his forehead again and took a note of his pulse with his fingers.  
“Damon.” Damon croaked.  
Stefan raised his eyebrows in query.  
“My name is Damon.” Damon whispered, feeling the room spin again.  
Stefan stared at him, seeing the poor man fall unconscious again. Despite how silly it was to react in this way to a mere name, nonetheless, all the hairs on his body stood on end. He shivered. It was just a name. So what if it was the same name he’d been trying to forget for years now. It was one hell of a coincidence that this Damon should be looking for another Stefan too. His stomach rumbled in anxiety. He’d learned time and again to trust his gut and it was telling him that something wasn’t quite right here. Still, it was just a name.  
He patted the man’s face with the damp cloth and exhaled. Something very odd was happening and he wasn’t sure what. For a moment when he’d been looking to check his pupils’, he’d almost…felt…He shook his head and stood back, calling for the nurse. She entered obediently and he explained to her what he wanted to do. The patient was to undergo a transfusion with saline to see if they could restore some of his body fluids. Foods high in iron were to be served also.  
The nurse noted everything down and nodded, nipping off to organise the equipment. Transfusions were being done successfully, but results were dependant on the equipment and the health of the patient.  
He looked to Damon again and frowned. At least he hadn’t disappeared this time. He’d figure this man out if it killed him.


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37 TH  
Damon opened his eyes some time later. He wasn't sure how long he'd been unconscious, but there was now an oil lamp on the table next to him. He grunted, trying to sit up when he felt a tug on his arm. He had a tube feeding him fluids. Damn. He was grateful for the medicine but he certainly didn't want to rely on any 19th century hygiene. Especially not if he really was human here.  
He sat up slowly, thankful that he could now. He was still very weak though. Strange that he hadn't returned to the real world briefly. He stood up, testing his legs. He felt a bit stronger but he was still vulnerable - not something he liked at all. He grabbed his jeans and struggled to get them on. The tube in his arm pulled, snagging his skin painfully and he huffed and ripped it out, surprised by the pain that followed. It was sharp and he grabbed his arm and squeezed the wound as he panted through it. The pain was blinding! Definitely human here then.  
He looked down at the hole left by the tube and felt nauseous. It was bleeding. Odd how the urge to lick it wasn't present. He thought on that for a moment, on the implications of that. If neither of them were vampires here then their bodies weren't mated either. He could die here too and evidently feel pain, but he couldn’t think on that just now. This wasn’t reality. He sighed and got dressed. What was he to do? He could be pulled back into his real body at any time.  
He walked slowly out of the room trying to tune his ears in to listen out for the nurses. He remembered this hospital well. He'd been born here when their mother had experienced complications.   
He made his way along the corridors, awed at how well he remembered the smells and look of the place after all of this time. He noticed a door with a plaque on it and he moved towards it.  
Dr S Salvator M.D.  
He ran his fingers over the metal, feeling his chest tighten. He tried the handle and the door opened easily. The room was small but tidy. He looked around, closing the door behind him. Stefan had awards for medical excellence and a medal for bravery during service to the Confederate Army. He ran his fingers over his desk to make it seem more real.   
So, if this was Stefan's life without Katherine then where was he? Did he exist too? He shook his head. No. He couldn't, otherwise Stefan would recognise him. What the he'll did that mean then and why had this happened?  
He noticed a photograph on the desk and he sat down and lifted it. Photographs were still early on in their creation really so the clarity wasn’t a pinch on what he was used to. He stared at it, recognising Stefan. There was a woman - his wife? A wife.  
A wife.  
His heart sank and he put it down again. Of course Stefan would be married. Hell if they'd lived, Giuseppe would have been eager for that. Their father hadn't been quiet about wanting grandchildren. Still, this really hurt. Was he happy? Fulfilled by an existence filled with life, a loving wife and job? Hell he probably had children too. That thought sent him onto his feet and he turned away and headed back towards the door. He didn't want to see anymore. He couldn't take it. This place was necessary to keep Stefan from going mad stuck inside his brain, nothing more. It didn't matter that it was strange. In the meantime, he had to get back to his body and finish their fight. Then he'd get his Stefan back.  
He opened the door and retreated by down the hallway when he felt faint again and stopped to rest against the wall. What was going on? He grunted and closed his eyes, sagging. He had to get out of here and figure out what was going on in this weird reality.  
He heard Stefan’s voice from down the hall and he opened his eyes again, on alert and propelled himself forward. Stefan didn’t know him at all and he wanted to know why. If this really was Mystic Falls, he had to know how it differed. Perhaps there’d be a clue as to how to get out of here.  
He made it past the room Stefan was in and moved as swiftly as he could. He remembered there was a side door. Mercifully his memory was still sharp and he found it, struggling out as quietly as he could, into the daylight. He blinked hard and shielded his eyes. The air smelled and tasted different. Weird. He looked around, moving out of the way of a horse and cart and took it all in. He really was back in time. He looked around for something familiar. Everything was as it had been. He saw faces of people he’d known. People he’d worked with as a youth, members of the Founders Council walked straight past him, merely lifting their hats in a gesture of polite acknowledgement. He gave a bewildered smile each time and got a few unsure looks. This was a small town. A stranger really stood out here.   
He began to move as quickly as he could, headed for their old home. He wasn’t sure where else to go. He surprised himself at how well he remembered the way he used to walk all those years ago. Father hadn’t had many horses that he could ride, or that he was allowed to ride that was. He often walked on foot and had had many different routes and hiding places where he could go to escape. When Stefan had been old enough to accompany him he’d shown him them all.  
He smiled to himself, embracing the innocence of that memory. After around half an hour he saw the family home in sight and he stopped to look at it. He hadn’t seen it for a long time. It had been destroyed mostly, after they’d left Mystic Falls. In the years he’d been back to honour his mother’s grave, he’d often visited the site – which was now rubble. Yet here it was I all its glory. Then a thought occurred.  
If Stefan was here and had somehow lived out a human life without Katherine and vampires, then could his mother still be alive and be here too? His heart squeezed at the thought and he moved faster. If it was possible he could see her again. She wouldn’t know him, but he could still look at her, see her alive and well and happy.  
He headed around the back of the property, just in case anyone saw him and thought he was trespassing. He kept his head low, treading the uneven ground carefully until he heard voices. He reached the back edge of the family cemetery and ducked down behind a large stone, peeking around carefully to see who the voice belonged to. It was a woman. Was it mother?  
He regulated his breathing, feeling his chest tight. It wasn’t mother. It was a servant, calling to others on the kitchens. He studied her carefully, straining to make out her face with human eyes. He’d never realised how poor human vision was in comparison to vampire eyes. He frowned, frustrated and inched closer when he tripped on a rock and had to lean against another stone. He cursed out loud and looked down at the name annoyed. His heart stopped. He sank to the ground and touched the name as bile rose in his throat. Stupid. So stupid to believe that maybe she was still here, alive.  
“Mother.” He croaked, closing his eyes as he felt tears beckon.  
Stupid to grieve for her. He’d already been there and done that years ago. Hell, he even came and visited her graveside in the real world too still. He’d grieve aplenty for her, yet somehow being here in this time opened the wound like it was fresh. He sat down, shaking his head and looking at the writing. She’d died when Stefan was young still, but at least he hadn’t been an infant.  
He exhaled and clenched his jaw. In this reality she hadn’t died because of him at least. He’d never doubted that Giuseppe had hated him because of her passing. He’d caught scarlet fever and had given it to her. Giuseppe had been more carefully with precious Stefan and hadn’t allowed him to see his brother for months until he was recovered, but mother had come and sat with him, singing to him and bathing him when Flora had to attend to Stefan.  
The fact that she’d died young here felt strange. Was she just destined to die young? Had it been his fault then? Giuseppe thought so.  
He stood up again after a few moments and looked towards the house. Giuseppe had treated him with nothing but contempt after mother had died. He blamed him for it and he’d never tried to hide that fact very much either. Without him having existed here, would Giuseppe be the same twisted, bitter man? Perhaps Giuseppe would be completely different too.  
He moved forward to get nearer to the house when he stopped again and looked at another stone. The oxygen seemed to leave his lungs and he fell to his knees this time, desperately wiping the moss and dirt from the name frantically as his heart beat wildly.  
“No, no, no…” he panted as the name became crystal clear.  
He let out a wail of disbelief as he stared at his own name in horror. How could this be? He wiped at the date and sat back again. He had lived here. He had been real too, except he’d died as a child. Stefan would have been alive!   
He pushed himself back along the ground. Sure he’d had phoney headstones made for him before as he’d moved on to another incarnation but this one, right here in the family plot was the most awful thing he’d ever seen. It felt as though he was being staked in the heart.   
“No!” He got to his feet clumsily and turned away, out of the cemetery. He didn’t want to see anymore.   
This was just all a dumb part of Stefan’s unconscious mind keeping him ticking until he could return to his body. That was all. But then…it wasn’t as simple as that really. A life without him in it, meant that Stefan had lived. He’d become a hero at war, become a doctor just like he’d wanted, married. What did that mean? In this world Stefan’s life had been better without him? That thought was too much to bear.  
He made his way away, trying to put some distance from the house when he heard the voice of a child giggling. He turned, unable to resist the temptation and watched as a black haired girl ran in the land outside of the house. She was being chased by a servant, one he was sure he knew.  
Curiosity won out and he cut through the graveyard not looking at any more stones and stopped, hiding somewhere he could see them. It was Miss Flora. He’d known it! She was older though, but then she would be. The last time he’d seen her, he’d been a child and she was supposed to have died during the Civil War. He’d met her son on the battlefield and he’d told him about it.  
Everything was so messed up here. Then again, a world that still had Mammy in it, was a little brighter. Then he remembered Vida. Somehow Miss Flora was communicating with his little angel. For what purpose? He had to know.  
He stood up and approached them. The little girl squealed as she was swung around in Flora’s arms, both of them laughing until they spotted him.  
“Hi there. I hope I’m not intruding.” He said politely and the little girl gazed at him curiously.  
He focussed his attention on Flora and she searched his face and kept a hold of Vida.  
“I’m afraid I lost my horse, she threw me and I saw your home.” He continued to walk to them and Flora held up her hand and stopped him. “My apologies I am a friend of Stefan Salvatore.”  
Flora smiled down at the child.  
“Go on to your mother.” She patted the child in the direction of the house and the child stumbled a few times as she tried to look backwards at the stranger.  
Damon waited politely as the child disappeared and Flora turned to him.  
“This is very dangerous.” Her voice took on a strange tone and he looked to her confused. “How did you get here Damon?”  
Damon?  
He exhaled in surprise and she looked around and ushered him to her side as she moved to the rear of the servant entrance, away from prying eyes. He was too gobsmacked to speak as he followed her. When she was sure no one had seen them she turned to him and crossed her arms.  
“This isn’t possible. You can’t be here.”  
“You know me?” he swallowed thickly and she sighed and her eyes softened.  
“I know every babe I’ve nursed.” She said and he sagged, full of emotion.  
She reached up and put her hands on his shoulders, searching his face.  
“My, you grew up handsome.” She said sadly.  
“Mammy?”  
She nodded and cupped his cheeks, having to reach up on her tiptoes to do so and he stared at her paralysed with emotion.  
“You can’t be here. This place is not for you.”  
“Where are we? What is this place?” He grabbed her hands and held them.  
“This is the in-between. Stefan’s in-between and you need to leave before he realises and it changes everything.”  
“What do you mean?” He beseeched.  
She sighed.  
“He’s being given a second chance at life here. Without this, he’ll pass over as a half a being and no one knows what that’ll mean for him.”  
“This is limbo?” His eyes grew large and she shook her head.  
“No. This place is only for Stefan.”  
“How did I get here?”  
“I don’t know, but you can’t stay. You’re not dead. You must return to your body without him.”  
He dropped her hands.  
“I can’t leave without him.” He said defensively.  
“You must. He doesn’t know you.” She said gently and he rubbed his eyes. “He has been given the chance to cleanse his soul and join with the greater good. It’s his only chance to survive.”  
Damon looked at her pained.  
“So he’s not dead.”  
“Not exactly, but he is divided.”  
“Divided?”  
“From his own soul. He is too weak to ever go back to his real body, so you have to give him this chance to pass over complete. You have to let him save himself.”  
“Pass over?” Damon whispered horrified. “No, he has to come back to the real world!”  
Flora cupped his face again and cooed at him as he panted.  
“It’s his time Damon. The best thing you can do for him is to let him live out a good life and join the rest of his soul so that he can move on complete. You have your own destiny back in your body.”  
He shook his head and pushed her away from him.  
“Don’t touch me.” He hardened. “I don’t know what this is lady, but I can tell you that it’s not my reality. Stefan’s not going anywhere but back to his body, back to our life!”  
She shook her head sadly and held herself.  
“What are you?” He pinned her with his eyes and she stared back at him unflinching. “What do you want with my angel?”  
“I don’t know what you mean.” She said and he hardened, pushing her against the wall.  
“I don’t know what you are or what the hell this is, but leave my daughter out of it. Hear me?” He said venomously and she nodded calmly. “Don’t get in my way.” He threatened and stalked off towards the field again.  
She watched him go, shaking her head and aching for him. He was so lost. She couldn’t save them both however and Damon still had a ways to go before he could ever accept the things he’d done and truly repent for them. Stefan on the other hand, could be saved.  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Damon broke out into a run and made it most of the way back to the town before he needed to rest. He had so much adrenaline. It felt great. Still, this body was human and he began to feel hungry and in need of a stiff drink. He approached a drunken man, walking along the road and he spoke to him, entering into polite conversation before punching him until he was unconscious and stealing the money left in his pockets. He needed to eat.  
He wandered over to an old bar. One of the first in Mystic Falls. Not many gentleman drank in public – it was considered to be very unsavoury, but what did he care? No one knew him anyway. He was no one.  
He sat down at the bar and ordered. He could smell food and his mouth watered. He huffed in amusement at that and ordered a bowl of hot soup and bread. Whenever someone tried to speak to him he ignored them, until everyone had gotten the message. The bar was filled with men talking of their memories of the war, showing off medals and wounds now healed.   
Damon shook his head and continued to drink. His money wouldn’t last much longer though and he had to have a plan.  
“Hey.” He called the barman over. “I’m new in town. I’m a friend of Stefan Salvatore. Do you know him?”  
“Dr Salvatore? Sure, he’s the best doctor in the town!” The man smiled. “I’ve known his family all my life.”  
Damon scrutinised the man’s face. He didn’t know this guy, so how was he so well acquainted with the Salvatores?  
“I haven’t seen him since we met during the service. How is he these days?” He lied and the barman looked him over as if in disbelief that he had seen any action in the war.  
“Good, good. He works over at the hospital, over that ways.” He pointed in the general direction and Damon nodded, feigning interest.  
“Say.” Damon chuckled. “That wife he always talked about…”  
“Yeah, pretty thing too. Not surprised old Salvatore got them hitched before the effort began. Determined to have an army of little ones I think.” He chuckled and Damon gave a tight smile.  
“How many they got then?”  
“Think they have three now…yeah. Don’t know how he finds the time.” The man gave a dirty laugh and returned to serving people as Damon bit his lip.  
So Stefan had three children and a wife. Everything seemed perfect for him. Could what Flora said be true? Was this like an alternative life for Stefan so that he could redeem himself somehow? Like, if he could be a good and virtuous person here, then he’d be able to become whole again? What the hell did that mean anyway?   
He sat back, sipping on whisky as he thought it through. Bonnie had said that Stefan was…a Halfling. A Halfling. All due to the fact that he’d died and been brought back by Damon’s soul being split to trap him in his body. Stefan only had half a soul. Bonnie said that’s why the other spirits had been able to get inside of him to possess him. That’s how grandma had gotten into him. So how did that get fixed? How could he become a whole soul again and what would that do to him? He didn’t understand it. He didn’t understand any of it!  
He felt the tell-tale sensation of weakness begin again and he grunted, blinking hard and tried to stand up, when he fell over by accident. People crowded around him, speaking to him and he fought their hands as he felt his body pulse as if being squeezed. He groaned.  
What was happening? Where was he? Where was Stefan? Vida?  
“Vida?” He mumbled, hearing a baby cry nearby. “Vida.” He repeated groggily.  
“Move out of the way!” He heard a voice command and he opened his eyes to see Stefan above him.  
“Well hello doc.” He tried to joke when Stefan looked at him annoyed and pulled at his arm.  
He felt a sharp pinch and looked down in surprise as he saw Stefan withdraw a needle.   
“What are you..?” He said before falling back and passing out.  
“You need a hand Dr Salvatore?” The barman asked and Stefan stood up and nodded.  
“Take him and tell the nurse to confine him.” Stefan advised and two men carried Damon out as carefully as they could, between them.  
“Everything ok Stefan?” The barman asked and Stefan gave a reassuring smile. “He ok? He said you served together back in the day.”  
Stefan fell silent and gave a small smile politely and the barman awaited more of a response.  
“He in some trouble?”  
Stefan looked to the man again and fixed the collar of his surgical coat.  
“You could say that.”  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
“Going somewhere were you?” A young nurse appeared when he awoke and touched his shoulder.  
“Huh?” He grunted.  
“You need to relax and let us take care of you.” She advised and he tried to sit up, when he realised that he was tied down.  
He struggled, trying to move and the nurse cooed at him and tried to calm him.  
“What the fuck are you doing?” He growled and she sighed and lifted a needle.  
His eyes widened as she moved to his arm and he lay back.  
“No, no! I’m fine. I’m fine.” He said hurriedly and she looked to him and waited. “Please.”  
She put the needle back down and he tried to calm down and breathe.  
“Where’s...?” He began when Stefan entered the room.  
He relaxed at the sight and Stefan asked the nurse to leave. He closed the door behind her and turned back to look at him.  
"Stefan." He exhaled. "How long was I out?"  
"A while." Stefan answered before checking his pulse. "Who are you?" Stefan stood with authority and stared him out.  
Something about him was off, strange. Damon studied him trying to figure out what was wrong.  
“Are you going to untie me?” Damon tried to joke but Stefan stared at him unmoving.  
A shimmer of fear tingled through him, making all of his hairs stand on end.  
“Stefan…”  
“Who are you?” Stefan asked calmly and Damon swallowed nervously.  
“Damon.” He replied, trying to subtly struggle with the restraints to test their hold on him.  
“How do you know me?” Stefan remained cold.  
“Let me out of these.”  
“How…” Stefan repeated, pausing as Damon pulled at his arms again, “..do you know me?”  
“This isn’t very doctorly!” Damon hissed, struggling harder with his human strength and Stefan came around to his side and pushed on his chest hard with the palm of his hand to keep him where he was.  
“How do you know my family? Who sent you here?!” Stefan spat at him and he halted his attempts to move and stared at him confused.   
“No one.”  
“How did you know my daughter’s name? Huh? How did you disappear all those years ago?”  
Damon panted, pained as Stefan leaned his hand onto his chest harder and made him take a deep breath. Stefan waited, looking at him suspiciously. What was he talking about? What was he thinking? Damon kept quiet.  
After a few seconds Stefan released his chest and stood up reaching for the needle. Damon exhaled and watched him.  
“What are you doing?”  
“We are going to sit here until you tell me exactly who you’re working for and what your plan is.” Stefan said calmly as he flicked the air bubbles out of the needle.  
Damon cringed in disbelief.  
“Stefan wait, please I’m not…” He began to protest when Stefan stuck the needle into his arm roughly.  
He cried out and Stefan stared at him, waiting with his finger tip on the head of the needle.  
“Vida.” Stefan said and Damon frowned. “Is that your plan? You’re here for my Vida?”  
Damon shook his head. His Vida? Vida was here?  
“What?”  
“Are you here to take my daughter? To hurt her?”  
Damon’s eyes widened and he shook his head. The little black haired girl he’d seen. Stefan had called her Vida? What could that mean? Was some of his Stefan leaking through into this weird person’s mind? Weird indeed because this wasn’t the Stefan he’d always known.  
“Then why the hell were you at my house today? How did you know my daughter’s name?” Stefan pressed.  
“I was lost.”  
“You must really think I’m stupid. You all must. Well you’re not going to get me to join you, no matter what you do. You hear?!” Stefan sounded deranged and Damon nodded. “I am not one of you.”  
Stefan jabbed the needle in again and Damon grunted in pain. He was helpless. He couldn’t move and Stefan had clearly lost his marbles!  
“I can keep you here as long as I need to until I find out what I need to know. Men don’t just disappear into thin air. You’re one of them.”  
“Yes.” Damon played along.  
“How did you find me?” Stefan seemed to relax slightly at Damon’s acceptance.  
“Giuseppe.” Damon panted, looking to the solution in the needle.  
“He told you where to find me?” Stefan asked incredulously and Damon nodded. “I never thought he’d sink so low.”  
Stefan seemed contemplative at that moment.  
“What else did he tell you?” Stefan pressed. “How did he want you to make me do it?”  
“Do what?” Damon’s head was spinning and he could feel some small amounts of the drug entering him now.  
“Get me to kill you! You’re not human, you’re some kind of demon.” Stefan hissed. “He wants me gone like my brother, turned to a demon wolf so he can be rid of me. He thinks I’m corrupt now.”  
Damon stared at him, trying to add all of the dots together as Stefan shook his head.  
“I’m your brother.” He said it before he could stop himself and Stefan looked at him with hardness in his eyes.  
“My brother is dead. My father killed him and you know it!” Stefan took a hold of Damon’s throat with his hand, dropping the needle onto the floor as he squeezed.  
Damon choked and coughed, his eyes widening.  
“You won’t turn me into a wolf. Father’s not going to get to my family!!” Stefan shouted and Damon felt his heart thunder at the pressure of keeping him alive.  
He gasped and coughed, straining against the bed and heard nurses beating on the door. The door burst inwards and three nurses ran to Stefan, pulling him off of him and Damon almost vomited at the relief of being able to drag air into his lungs. Stefan struggled until he hit one of the nurses and she fell over, crying out. He stopped, realising what he was doing and leaned down to help her.  
“I’m sorry, Margaret I’m…” he croaked and the others helped her up cautiously. “I’m so sorry!”  
“It’s ok Dr Salvatore. It’s ok.” She said, trying not to weep and Stefan looked back at Damon, ashamed and confused.  
He left the room in a hurry and one of the nurses came to Damon and untied him. He coughed, feeling as though his lungs were on fire. The nurse rubbed his back and he leaned over the side of the bed and vomited. The nurse cooed to him and reassured him and he lay back, breathing loudly once more.  
“What’s wrong with him?” He managed to ask between breaths and the nurse tucked him in and stroked the hair from his forehead gently.  
“It was the war. Sometimes he gets confused. He’s a good man, though. A good doctor.” She fussed and Damon nodded. “He’s respected in this town. He carries sway.”  
He looked at her, but she avoided his eyes. Despite her kind tone, her message was clear. Stefan was to be protected from any fall back as a result of this episode. Clearly the medical staff were aware of Stefan’s fragile mental health and they were used to covering for him.  
She lingered only long enough to ensure that he would keep silent about what had just transpired before she left and he sat up, trying to gather his thoughts. Stefan had the war madness. It made sense. He hadn’t blinked an eyelid over the fact that a man who had vanished before his eyes had turned up again with no explanation. What was he babbling about though? Wolf. Stefan had mentioned he wouldn’t become a wolf. So did he know about their ancestry? Their bloodline? How? Stefan had been fixated on Giuseppe somehow being involved in a plot to get rid of him, to have him turned into a wolf. What?  
He held his throat, still coughing and wheezing a little. Stefan knew about werewolves then and somehow he thought Giuseppe had sent Damon to force him to kill. So Stefan knew that you had to kill to become a werewolf and it sounded as though Giuseppe did too. Had Giuseppe known all along in their reality too or just here?  
If Stefan became a werewolf here, then what would happen in real life to his body?


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 38 TH

Stefan threw himself down in his chair in his office and rested his face in his hands panting. He’d lost it, lost it again. Maybe he was finally losing his mind now. He shook his head, distraught. He’d managed to control himself lately. He’d managed to lessen the night terrors, the dreams of death and screaming. Even though it had been six years since he’d come home from the war, it felt more like six days.  
Some days he could put it into a room in his mind and not think on the horror of it all, but lately it’d been harder. Last month he’d had to send one of his patients away to the asylum after repeatedly failing to cure the man’s mental anguish. The war had claimed yet another mind. He didn’t want to be next.  
Now this stranger had arrived just when he felt vulnerable, just as he had to turn to brandy for help getting through the day again. Elizabeth was unhappy. He wasn’t the man she’d agreed to marry when he came home with a drink in him. Giuseppe didn’t like it but he said nothing. As long as Stefan did his duty as a husband and father and held up his reputation in front of others, then he turned a blind eye. What would the people of the town think should they know their beloved Dr Salvatore was actually hanging together by a thread of sanity?  
He wept silently, trying to pull himself together. He felt so alone in this madness and now this man had arrived and cemented his fear. Either this man was some kind of spirit demon sent for him – sent to entice him into killing and becoming a wolf, or he was a ghost. No human could just disappear and not age.   
He said he was his brother Damon. He shook his head as he realised how ridiculous that was and wiped his face dry.   
Giuseppe had tried to avoid situations where Stefan could kill someone to avoid letting his wolf side into him. His father had kept him safe from that. It wouldn’t be logical that he would try and get rid of him or turn him into a wolf. No. In fact that was what his father had always feared the most. He was just being paranoid. He’d become jealous of how much his own children had adored their nonno. He spent so little time with them that Giuseppe had become more like their father and sometimes it got to him. Sometimes Elizabeth seemed to prefer Giuseppe’s company too, rather than a broken, drunk husband. It made his imagination go wild.  
He opened a door on his desk and pulled out his needle and kit. He needed it today. The small vile of opium sat in front of him enticingly and he reached for it, not hesitating for a second. He needed to regain control of his mind. Just a little would do today. He strapped around his arm with a belt and tapped the vein, injecting carefully when the vein jumped out at him. He closed his eyes as he felt the effects. Just a little. Just a little.  
He exhaled and relaxed back into his chair. He could almost weep at the relief from his overactive mind. Everything would be fine. Everything was good. He smiled to himself, placing the needle down on the desk again, empty. The world seemed to melt away a little and every muscle in his body relaxed, until he heard a shout of fear.  
He opened his eyes in surprise to hear his name being called. He frowned, huffing as he sat up straight again. He was fuzzy but at least he wasn’t going to attack anyone now.  
“Dr Salvatore!!” He heard a nurse call a little more insistently and he got up and moved out into the corridor, blinking at the lighting.  
He headed towards sounds of commotion and entered Damon’s room. Damon was choking and coughing, struggling to breathe. Adrenaline hit him and he was propelled forward into the room. What had happened?  
“Doctor it’s his throat!” The nurse said worriedly and Stefan gasped and ran to check Damon’s neck and throat.  
Damon was turning blue and gasping, holding his throat and Stefan panicked, pulling his hands away to look. He hadn’t strangled him that hard, had he? He hadn’t damaged anything in his larynx had he? Had he?!  
“Help me get him up!” Stefan said to the nurse and they raised him into a seated position while Stefan tried to calm him and talk to him.  
“Don’t fight, just try slow deep breaths. Slow.” Stefan was chanting but Damon couldn’t do anything but hold his throat and look at him in fear and desperation. “Shit.”  
Stefan lay him back down and touched his face.  
“Sandra, call Dr Lockwood, get him in here.” He said hurriedly and she nodded and ran off.  
“Stefan!” Damon choked and grabbed his arm and Stefan cupped his face, checking his colour.  
“Just stay with me ok? I’m going to try something. Hang on.” Stefan begged.  
If Damon died, it could be his fault and he knew only too well what that would mean. His demon would take him over.  
He rushed to the cabinet in the room and drew out a scalpel, hesitating as Damon turned his head towards him and watched him, gasping like a fish out of water. He was so blue now. There wasn’t much choice. He couldn’t wait for Dr Lockwood to get here and take over. Dr Lockwood always took over when there was a patient who may die. Stefan hadn’t ever lost anyone because of that.  
He moved back over to Damon, swallowing. This treatment was so new it hadn’t been recognised by the medical council yet, but he’d heard of it being done abroad. He swallowed again and moved to Damon, picking up a small bottle of chloroform and a piece of cloth. Damon’s eyes widened and he shook his head.  
“It’s ok. You’re going to be ok. I’m going to get some oxygen into your lungs ok. I just need you to inhale as much as you can to calm you. You won’t feel a thing I promise.” Stefan promised but as he moved to lay the cloth on Damon’s nose and mouth, Damon stopped his arm and squeezed it hard in refusal.  
He struggled against him, but Damon simply locked his eyes with Stefan’s and refused.  
“You’re going to suffocate!” Stefan exclaimed and Damon shook his head emphatically.  
Stefan sat the scalpel down, his fear rising, when Damon pulled him to him and placed one of Stefan’s hands on his face and one on his heart. Stefan frowned and watched as Damon closed his eyes and held his hands over Stefan’s. It was a touch of intimacy and gentleness that Stefan didn’t understand.  
“What are you doing?” Stefan whispered and Damon took a deeper breath suddenly.  
Stefan watched in amazement as Damon drew in another. He was so gobsmacked that he allowed Damon to pull him closer, so their faces were almost touching. Damon opened his eyes and looked at him, tears welling in them and Stefan felt that strange feeling of familiarity fill him. The same feeling he’d had when Damon had first arrived here. There was something between them that he could almost put his finger on.  
“Who are you?” He whispered and Damon continued to breathe in and out – his colour returning. “What are you?”  
“Your brother.” Damon whispered with difficulty. “Your soulmate.”  
Stefan studied his face, biting his lip as Damon tired, his eyes closing as the oxygen returned to his body.  
“My brother died as a child.” He whispered, watching Damon’s face.  
“Different world.” Damon whispered.  
“So you’ve come from a different world? A different Mystic Falls?” He asked and Damon nodded. “You came here to find me?” Stefan asked, the fuzziness of the drugs kicking in again and making him lean further towards Damon’s face.  
Damon opened his eyes and reached up to cup Stefan’s face tenderly. Stefan blinked.  
“Come back with me.”  
“My Damon?” Stefan whispered.  
He continued to hold Damon tenderly and look at his facial features for a few minutes as Damon fell asleep. They weren’t so unalike. They both had some similar features. If he was really Damon and from some other reality, it could explain how he disappeared sometimes.   
He heard the sounds of Dr Lockwood approaching with the nurse and he removed their hands, putting a professional distance between them and looking towards the door as they entered.  
“Stefan?” Dr Lockwood said as he looked at Damon.  
“I’m sorry to bother you so late Henry. I got him breathing after all.”  
“What happened?” Henry asked, coming around to check Damon’s throat.  
He grunted at the sign of bruising around his neck and he looked to Stefan for a second. The nurses had been trying to keep Stefan’s episodes under wraps and away from his seniors, but Stefan had felt like Henry had had suspicions building.  
“He was brought in from a bar brawl Doctor. We didn’t realise the injuries he sustained were that severe until he went into asphyxia.” Sandra said, nodding at Stefan for confirmation of her story.  
Stefan gave a weak nod and Henry stood up again and exhaled. Stefan could tell he wasn’t convinced.  
“Keep an eye on him. We need to figure out who his people are. He’s new in town?” He looked to Stefan and Stefan nodded. “Then we need to find his relatives, just in case.”  
Sandra nodded and left the room. Henry turned to Stefan.  
“Is there anything you want to tell me Dr?”  
Stefan swallowed bile and hid the needle-punctured arm behind his back. Taking opium wasn’t illegal but it made him appear weaker in character and this man was someone whom he aspired to be worthy of one day.  
“Stefan I know that things have been stressful lately.” Henry began and Stefan stood up straighter, like a soldier.  
“Yes sir.” He replied.  
“How are things at home? Is Elizabeth doing well?”  
“Yes, thank you sir. She sends her regards to your daughter.”  
“I’m not your commanding officer anymore Stefan. I’m just your friend now, your ally. I need you to know that you can come to me if you need anything. Anything at all.” Henry said pointedly. “You’re a good doctor, but you’ve seen enough death for one lifetime. I will treat this man from now on. Ok?”  
He was doing it again, taking sick or dying patients away from Stefan’s care. Didn’t he trust him? What was all of that about? Did he know about the curse? He was Giuseppe’s best friend after all.  
“No. I appreciate it, but he’s my patient and I need to stay here until I can figure out what’s happening to him.”  
“What you need is a large brandy and a good nights’ rest. In fact I want you to take two days off. Spend some time with your family, relax and recuperate.” Henry smiled and squeezed his shoulders. “You’re going to fill my shoes here soon enough. You need to keep your body and mind strong and healthy.”  
“But I really think…” Stefan started to argue.  
“That is an order soldier.” Henry said with a smile but also with authority.  
Stefan wasn’t being asked to accept it, he was being given a command. He looked to Damon’s face again. Damon was breathing normally now. He’d probably sleep through the night undisturbed and if he awoke the nurses would be keeping an eye on him. He would be fine.  
Reluctantly he nodded and Henry walked him out of the room, closing the door behind him.  
“Give my love to the family. Your father is waiting outside for you.”  
Stefan nodded and headed back to his office to collect his coat. Great. Giuseppe would most likely want to know what was happening and would scrutinise his appearance for signs of opium use.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Damon awoke coughing and spluttering saliva and opened his eyes. He groaned. He was still here?! How the hell did he get out of here? How many near death clashes did he have to have before he returned to his body? His blood ran cold at the thought that he may be trapped here. Trapped here, human and without his Stefan – just a PTSD suffering Stefan who didn’t know him.  
He coughed violently and felt the urge to vomit come upon him. He rolled onto his side and found an empty bucket. He threw up, gasping and groaning. It was odd to see food in his stomach contents and not just blood. He wiped his mouth and lay back down again, feeling dizzy. He had to think of something.   
He touched his throat, feeling sensitivity there. Stefan had really choked him. It had been terrifying. He’d been able to connect somehow to Stefan’s soul minutely, enough to be able to breathe again. Thank god. Now how to pull on the connection further to get Stefan to realise what was happening here? Could he pull on Stefan’s real body to get back?  
He blinked as he thought that over. Could he somehow pull on Stefan’s real body and get himself back? He’d need Eve’s help undoubtedly. He sighed and closed his eyes, trying to think about her. What did he really know about her though? Not much. He had to make contact somehow. Ok. She was old. Really old. Crazy, baby killing bitch that’s who she was!  
He groaned, trying to focus.  
She was a wolf, first and foremost. It was the most important thing in her mind. He opened his eyes. Thinking like a wolf was a must then, but then again – he wasn’t a wolf here. He was human. He frowned. Ok. Remember what being a wolf felt like then. He exhaled trying to remember. Things smelled more, everything was louder, his vision better, his need to be with Stefan was heightened, being a father felt like the most important thing in the world – second only to the need to have more babies.   
He opened his eyes. That was it. His real body would be in heat because Stefan’s body was. He had to use that connection. But how? How did he get into that frame of mind?  
He reached his hand down and found himself once more in a hospital gown. Easy access then. He moved his gown aside and felt for his manhood. It was so warm. He wasn’t used to having body heat unless he’s just fed. He squeezed it, trying to get in the mood but it was difficult. He didn’t have vampire stamina anymore and truth was that he was lying here human and weak because he almost just been strangled and suffocated.  
His member failed to rise and he exhaled, trying to think about Stefan to help. He pictured Stefan’s mouth, the pinkish colour of his bottom lip and how soft those lips were when they kissed. Stefan liked to bite his bottom lip when they were kissing and he’d never returned the favour.   
What else did he like? He mentally moved down Stefan’s body from memory, pausing at his favourite places – Stefan’s long neck. He loved to feed from his neck and shoulders, the feel of Stefan’s muscles squeezing him when they held each other, the sensation of Stefan’s biceps around his arms was comforting. Stefan’s torso was so different from his too. Stefan had muscles upon muscles and very sensitive nipples. Damon loved to play with them, to suck and nibble as Stefan writhed and ran his fingers through his hair. The sounds he would moan were contagious.  
Damon’s member began to awaken finally and he continued to daydream as he began to stroke it.  
Stefan’s mouth open but silent as Damon would swallow his manhood. Stefan’s muscles quivering in his abdomen as Damon sucked and licked it.  
“Uh Damon…”   
He could almost hear him say the words, the silent chant of longing and appreciation and he grew a little breathless again as he pumped harder. Need to get back. Need to get back. He moaned silently as he felt pleasure begin in his groin. He sighed and turned his head into the pillow as he felt his own abs dance in expectation. Sensations other than pain seemed to be muted here, but at least an orgasm would still rock him and perhaps if he climaxed it might somehow connect him to heat-stricken grandma.   
Footsteps headed towards his room and he stopped, annoyed and stared at the door. What time was it? It seemed like the early hours of the morning. There were no other sounds of patients or nurses moving around. It had to be night.   
The footsteps drew closer and seemed to resonate tension and intention in the corridor. He tried to sit up, but it was difficult still. His body really had taken a beating here. If only he had full strength or at least human strength but for some reason he was weak as hell no matter what. Could that be because grandma was feeding on him or worse? She could be using his body to satisfy herself. He smirked as he thought on that.   
Good luck getting a rise out of me without blood pressure lady. No blood, no boner.  
The door to his room opened and he looked to it, alert. A man came inside, his back to him and closed the door as carefully as he could – almost cautiously. Damon took a breath and studied his back. The man had on a hat and a large coat so it was hard to tell who it was.  
“Stefan?” He asked and the man turned around.  
His blood ran cold as he stared into the face of his father, albeit an older version than the last face he’d ever seen him with in real life. His eyes widened. What was he doing here? Did he know who he was?  
“Who are you?” He asked as the man looked around the room and settled his gaze upon him eventually.  
“Cut the nonsense Damon.” Giuseppe said and Damon tried to sit up again as his heart beat wildly.  
Giuseppe moved to the side of his bed and forced him back down onto his back by pushing down on his chest with one arm, holding him there as he studied his face. Damon grabbed his arm and tried to push back but failed miserably. Giuseppe huffed in surprise and seemed to relax a little.  
“Not so good without your vampire strength huh?”  
“Father?”  
“Unfortunately.” Giuseppe confirmed and Damon stared at him. “Why are you so weak? How did you get here?”  
“I think I’ll ask the questions!” Damon spat, hatred returning and Giuseppe stood back, removing his hand. “How do you and Flora still know me when Stefan doesn’t? What’s going on?” He demanded.  
“You just can’t leave him alone can you? It wasn’t bad enough that you let him envy you, follow you into the clutches of a monster, that you led him straight into the path of death with you – you had to come here and try and drag him to hell with you too!”  
“Screw you!” Damon sneered. “Stefan has his own mind. I’ve never made him do anything he hasn’t wanted to.”  
“You were the single most disruptive influence in his life and look what happened to him.” Giuseppe said coldly. “I won’t let you do this to him again.”  
“I didn’t do jack shit old man!” He gritted his teeth. “You remember a little lady called Katherine? She was the killer. She was the one who messed with our heads! And as I recall, you killed both of us!”  
“You were already poisoned and she was nothing more than a catalyst. There’s only one person in the world that Stefan would follow anywhere and that is you.”  
Giuseppe looked behind him, listening and Damon managed to raise himself up against the headboard.  
“Jealous?” Damon smirked and Giuseppe slapped his hand out and caught him in the cheek.  
Damon held his face, his eyes watering at the sting of pain and he let out a small gasp. Giuseppe watched him.  
“You’re human here.” He commented and Damon looked to him with such hatred in his eyes that he could weep, but he wouldn’t. “This place is where he needs to be. If you really loved him, you’d let him be.”  
“Where are we?”   
“It doesn’t have a name.” Giuseppe said.  
“Bullshit!” Damon hissed.  
“It doesn’t matter because you are leaving.” Giuseppe said venomously and pulled out a knife.  
Damon stared at it, at the way the light glinted off of the steal. It was almost hypnotic.  
“You still don’t care how many lives you’ve taken. The horror you’ve caused. Your soul can’t be redeemed, but his can.”  
“It’s always been so easy for you.” Damon gave a small humourless smirk and mumbled, still staring at the knife. “To blame me for everything wrong and evil.”  
“What?” Giuseppe huffed.  
“It wasn’t my fault she died.” Damon mumbled.  
“What?”  
Damon looked at him.  
“She died here too and it wasn’t my fault.”  
“Don’t think you know what…”  
“I didn’t kill her!” Damon barked and Giuseppe looked behind him again.  
Of course. No one knew he was here. He’d come to kill Damon in the night, hoping to end this charade without detection.  
“For all I know you did, with your crazy rules and superstitions! Tell me father did you let her die? Did you prevent any medicine getting to her because you thought she was impure?”  
Giuseppe punched him hard in the face this time and Damon fell back groaning and holding himself.  
“Your mother was an angel. Too weak to stand what her son would become. You were always going to be a demon boy. Always. This time, I made sure your existence ended before Stefan could be caught up in it. Here he grew older, married, became a father. He is happy here and he has never triggered the curse.” Giuseppe put a chair to the back of the door as he spoke and Damon rolled over and tried to stand.  
“You don’t know him at all. He’s losing his mind! You’ve never known anything but your own crazy delusions!”  
Giuseppe turned to him, calm and cold and Damon felt real fear. Chance was that if he died here, he’d go back to his body but there may be an equal chance that if he died here, he might cross over – into what though? Flora had said Stefan needed to join with his other self or be doomed to cross into the unknown with half a soul.  
Giuseppe took a step closer and Damon held his hands up defensively. Giuseppe narrowed his eyes but stopped.  
“What will happen to him?” He asked and Giuseppe sighed silently. “Where will he go?”  
“He needs to join with his higher self. If he lives a good life here he will be able to do that and then cross over into the afterlife with me.”  
“And if he doesn’t?” Damon leaned back against the wall and Giuseppe relaxed the hand with the knife in it.  
“Oblivion. Death – real death. No one knows.”  
Damon panted, holding his sore face and seeing blood on his fingertips from his nose. Giuseppe looked at the blood and his anger seemed to weaken a little. Damon looked to him.  
“What about me?” He whispered. “If I die here.”  
Giuseppe clenched his jaw.  
“You’ll get what you deserve Damon. You’ve relished being a vampire and killing. You’ll have to face that.”  
“Is hell real?” Damon asked, sagging into the wall a little.  
Giuseppe searched his face and sighed.  
“There are some people I’ve never seen on this side so I assume there is.” He answered carefully and Damon exhaled.  
“Even if Stefan lives a good life here, it doesn’t cancel out what he’s done either. It’s not repentance if he doesn’t remember.” Damon pointed out.  
“Stefan asks for forgiveness daily Damon. He has done so for a long time. He feels the pain of the lives he’s taken. You don’t.”  
“How do you know that? How do you know what I feel?” Damon asked bitterly, but looked to the floor.  
“Because you’re selfish. You always have been.”  
“Did you ever stop to wonder why I turned out like this?” Damon looked to him again. “Did you consider that if you’d just…been my father, loved me instead of waiting for me to screw up – that’d I’d have been different?”  
Giuseppe shook his head and Damon’s eyes filled with tears.  
“Weeping of a demon.” Giuseppe said under his breath.  
“You had me written off before I could talk. I never stood a chance.” Damon swallowed hard. “What man in their right mind hates a child?”  
“A man who has a family to protect from evil.” Giuseppe said simply.  
Damon closed his eyes and let tears spill. Giuseppe took another step forward, grasping the knife in his hand.  
“If anyone was going to become a demon it was you father.” Damon clenched his jaw. “You were the one who killed your own sons. You were the one who let mother die. I was just a scapegoat.”  
Giuseppe dove forward and stabbed him in the stomach. Damon gagged and held onto his arms as the air ran out of his lungs. His body screamed in violation and he spluttered against Giuseppe’s arm. Giuseppe released him onto the floor and stood back. Damon held around his stomach, panting but in too much pain to be able to speak as blood poured over his hands and between his fingers. He looked up at Giuseppe in accusation and agony.  
Giuseppe’s expression faltered from one of triumph to confusion. This hadn’t been what he’d expected clearly. He’d expected to come in here and kill a demon, instead he was simply watching someone die horribly.  
Damon opened his mouth to speak but couldn’t and fell onto his side, watching as his blood began to seep over the floor around him. He couldn’t move at all. After a few seconds he realised that he didn’t want to.   
“You’ve lived long enough. It’s time to pay the price.” Giuseppe’s voice spoke above him and he grunted.  
“Father.” He croaked. “Father.”  
Giuseppe paused, watching him for a second.  
“I’m…your son too.” Damon struggled to say and looked at him. “I’m scared.”  
Giuseppe took a step closer and knelt down next to him.  
“Father…” Damon mumbled and Giuseppe lifted his upper body onto his knee.  
Damon cried out in pain and felt his eyes roll back into his head. Giuseppe touched his face and looked into his eyes.  
“Are you in there son?” Giuseppe asked and Damon gagged silently as he held his stomach. “Do you want to repent?”  
Damon’s mouth fell open and he struggled to hold his head up at the blood loss. Giuseppe cradled his head and cupped his cheek in a tender way he’d never done in real life. Damon frowned at him, confused.  
“Save yourself son. Want to save yourself. Accept your evil and ask for forgiveness.” Giuseppe became teary and Damon frowned, searching his eyes. “Come on my boy.”  
“Uh…” Damon groaned and felt his eyes roll again.  
Was he really going to die now and pass over to hell? He should be afraid but somehow he was numb.  
“Damon? Damon, look at me son.” Giuseppe pleaded and Damon exhaled and looked at his eyes again, seeing pain there, remorse even.  
How strange.  
He sucked in a breath and opened his mouth to speak.  
“Bite…me…” He whispered and Giuseppe exhaled and closed his eyes.  
“We made this place to save your brother and I intend to keep him here until he is whole. You’ve chosen your own path. God forgive you.” He lay Damon back down on the floor, choking like a dying fish and walked to the door.  
“Goodbye Damon.” He opened the door and left, closing it behind him.  
Damon cried out, panting harshly and trying to reach for the wall to help him stand up. It was useless. He was dying. There was too much blood everywhere – he was a goner here. He began to pant for breath, trying to stay conscious. He didn’t know what to do – to allow death or to fight it. He was truly afraid.  
He lay his head back against the wall and tried to think of Eve. She had to pull on the connection, had to bring him back into his body!  
“Eve, please.” He croaked, when he heard footsteps coming towards his room again.  
He exhaled in fear and held himself, waiting for Giuseppe to come back in and finish him, when the door flew open and an ashen faced Stefan entered, looking horrified. Damon opened his mouth to speak but couldn’t and Stefan seemed to run to him in slow motion, calling for nurses and aid. Suddenly he was over Stefan’s lap as Stefan ripped at fabric and tried to tie it around Damon’s middle. Damon cried out at the pain and Stefan kept speaking to him, telling him to hold the wound tight. It was useless though. Both of them knew it. There was too much blood everywhere.  
“Stefan.” He mumbled softly as Stefan shouted for help once more. “Stefan.”  
“Damon look at me! Stay with me. Stay with me!”  
Damon looked at his face, his whole body weight resting against him now.  
“You have to stay with me. I need to know. I have so many questions!” Stefan began to weep and Damon raised an eyebrow. “I found a painting of Damon. I found it and I…I believe you! Your face, it…hasn’t changed much since then.”  
Damon stared at him. A painting.  
“It was mothers’. She must have hid it for me, so I would know what you looked like.” Stefan cupped his face.  
“Stefan.”  
“My brother, all grown up.” Stefan smiled as a tear ran down his cheek and over his lip. “From a different life. I’m not crazy.”  
Damon gave a small smile but then felt the life start to drain.  
“Eve!” Damon cried out in fear. “Eve!”  
Stefan cradled him, speaking to him soothingly and encouraging him to stay awake. Nurses finally appeared and began to help Stefan with the wound, but it didn’t hurt anymore. In fact he didn’t feel anything anymore actually. He was so tired and cold.  
“Damon? Damon! How do I find you? What am I supposed to do?” Stefan cried and Damon looked at him.  
“Live.” Damon whispered.  
“Not here. With you! Where are you?” Stefan beseeched, but the light in Damon’s eyes darkened and Stefan sobbed as he shook him.  
The nurses all stopped what they were doing and mumbled their apologies as Stefan scooped Damon’s face to his neck and held him there, hugging him.  
“Dr Salvatore?” Sandra said, rubbing his back.  
“He is real.” Stefan whispered, shaking his head and both nurses looked at each other in concern.  
“Get Dr Lockwood.” One whispered to the other and Stefan tilted Damon’s face back into his elbow and traced his features.  
“Stefan, it’s going to be ok.” The nurse said and he looked to her.  
He had to pull himself together. He had to find out who’d done this and what all of this meant. Damon was real. This man was him. He had no doubt of that now. He’d crossed over from another reality to find him and now he would have to return the favour. Something here wasn’t right. He’d always felt that, but this was the proof. Someone had come here with the intention of silencing Damon, getting rid of him. Who would do that and why?  
He gave a small nod to the nurse and lay Damon’s body on the ground.  
“I’m sorry Nora, I just, got a little confused.”  
“Nora?” The nurse asked and he looked at her.  
“Sorry, Amelia.” He corrected and she looked at him worriedly. “Please, can you get me a horse?”  
“A horse?”  
“Yes. Straight away. I found this man’s family and I need to get word to them. Plus this man has been murdered and we need to alert the sheriff.”  
She nodded but lingered for a second to make sure he wasn’t having a meltdown. He drew in deep breaths until he appeared sane and calm and stood up. Amelia left the room and he looked down at Damon.  
“Whatever’s happening, I’ll figure it out somehow. I won’t rest until I do brother.” He vowed.  
He moved to kneel down and lift the body when it began to fade. He stood back in fear and gasped, watching. It faded gradually and then disappeared as though it had never been there. His eyes widened.   
Where had it gone?


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter 39 TH

Air filled his lungs like fire and he screamed and opened his eyes wide. He continued to scream, before coughing, realising that his mouth was full of blood. He gasped and rolled onto his side as he coughed violently, almost vomiting. He wasn’t aware of the cooing sounds and gentle stroking of his back at first. His whole body felt like it had been electrocuted and all he could do was brace himself and breathe. He closed his eyes, concentrating and trying to clear his head – everything hurt. Every muscle ached, every sense was excruciating and it was almost too much to bear!  
He made a gargled sound of fear and pain and flopped down onto the ground, still breathing harshly. Where was he?  
Safe.   
Came a response and he opened his eyes, feeling almost as though he was being born again – thrown into some strange reality where he was vulnerable and naked and confused.  
Safety. Peace, beautiful man.  
He grunted again and shivered as he became aware of the presence of another person. He jolted when he felt a soothing hand stroke down his back. He held tight. The hand became gentler and was replaced by a tongue, hot and soft. He closed his eyes again, focussing on the odd feeling of comfort that came from the touch. He exhaled softly as the tongue continued down his back, lapping gently.  
The lapping became small kisses and soft hums of appreciation and he began to relax and unwind his tight muscles.  
So soft. You’re so lovely.   
“Hmmn.” He made a small sound and the small touches stopped and a hand was placed on his side.  
Want.  
He felt the strong emotion of lust and he opened his eyes again groggily.  
Need. Need you inside me. Beautiful man. Need your body, need your seed.  
He frowned slightly as the hand pulled at him and turned him over. He rolled onto his back and stared up into eyes that were burning with desire. The look of need was so intense that he felt a moment of fear, before he realised who he was looking at.  
“Eve.” He whispered.  
Neither spoke for a minute, simply staring at each other. The smell of heat pungent and permeating the walls of the cave they were in. He hadn’t realised until this moment, that they were in a small cavern and they were both very naked.  
He tried to sit up and she pushed him back down onto his back. He felt battered and bruised and didn’t fight.  
“For hours I’ve waited, feeding you, scenting you. Fix me.” She said, cocking her head and staring at him intensely.  
He said nothing, still trying to flex his muscles and get some strength into his body – his body felt as though he really had been dead for a while.  
Eve leaned down to his face and licked up his cheek, breathing in his scent and he exhaled and blinked.  
“This body needs you.” She whispered in his ear. “This body is yours alpha.”  
He shivered and fought an erection.  
“Fill it up with your babies. Make me cry and howl.” She continued.  
She began to scent in at his neck and he grunted, raising his arms to hold her shoulders. Hours? That was all the time he’d been away with his Stefan? She kissed his bonding site on his neck and he kicked her across the room with all the energy he had. She fell back into the rock of the cave, breaking off some dust and coughing as she held herself in pain and rage.  
He sat up, glaring at her and held his hand over his sex, guarding it as she growled.  
“You’ll have a mania.” She warned and he deflated as he realised that that was true.  
While Stefan’s body was in heat, his would be too unless they coupled and ended it together.   
No.  
He shook his head and swallowed and she sat down tiredly and made a small sound of longing.  
“Do it for your mate. His body will be damaged if you don’t end this heat.” She whispered and he frowned. “You made me a deal.”  
He stared at her, confused.  
“No interference in my plan and I would give this body back to you.” She reminded. “If you leave me like this, then I can’t do what I need to.”  
Damon gave a small huff.  
“I will finish my plan no matter how long it takes, but if I do so like this – your mate will be claimed and raped by any wolf in a hundred mile radius. I can leave this body at any time - leave them to it and return when they are done.”  
Damon stared at her in horror. She had the power to jump out of the body if something bad was happening to it?   
“I won’t even try to fight it – I’ll let the worst happen to it and then come back later.” She vowed and he began to pant and shake. “Unless you want that to happen, fix me!”  
She stood up and Damon deflated and lay back down, putting his hands over his face. He was doomed. There was no way out of this. He was going to have to.  
She climbed over him, the scent of Stefan’s fluid filling the space between them and he groaned and fought tears. This was the strangest kind of violation he’d ever heard of. He didn’t want this, but yet he was going to have to do the work here. She began to touch him gently, kissing the muscles in his chest and scenting him and he tightened in discomfort.  
Stop thinking and just let nature take its course.  
She channelled and licked over his nipples. He shuddered as she began to lap at them. He opened his eyes and looked down to see why – he was lactating again. He groaned in misery and she positioned herself between his legs so that every movement she did, brushed against his erection. He fought not to feel pleasure. It was so difficult. This was his mate’s body, it smelled the same, felt the same, looked almost the same but she was in there.   
He closed his eyes and tried to breathe. She sat up and took a hold of his manhood, pumping it and he jumped and turned his head away.  
“This isn’t going to work if you don’t cooperate. Act like my wolf!” She hissed and he clenched his jaw. “Breed me. I can’t do all the work!”  
He looked at her angrily.  
“If you want it, take it lady.” He groaned. “It’s all you’re getting!”  
She growled and squeezed his manhood hard and he jolted and looked at her in fear.  
“You won’t stick inside me if you don’t engage.” She hissed and he gulped as she leaned closer to his face, until their noses were touching. “Prove you’re a wolf and not a vampire. Prove to me that you should both be spared.”  
He searched her eyes.  
“Show me why I should return him to you.”  
He felt his heart race in his chest as she stared at him unblinking.  
“Prove you’ll be a good enough wolf mate for him and I’ll return him. Show me.” She bargained and he swallowed and felt his skin tingle.  
She was serious. He could fell it in his bones. She was actually making a deal. He opened his mouth to breathe and she nodded.  
“You’ll bring him back into his body?” He asked and she nodded.  
“When I am done.”  
“You’re going to get him killed.”  
“No. I have the power of travellers and witches Damon. The body won’t be harmed.”  
She seemed so sure, so absolutely confident and he held his breath thinking. She smiled and scented his cheek again.  
“Wait.” He whispered and she looked down at him. “Stefan has a trigger. You have to activate it, stop eggs releasing.” He said and she frowned at him in confusion. “Do it.”  
“What are you talking about?”  
“Klaus, he gave Stefan a trigger. We can stop…” he began to explain when she pumped his manhood again and he grunted. “…stop eggs.” He shivered as his body began to respond to his willingness.  
If she kept her bargain with him, he’d do this. He could do it.  
“Why would I want to do that?” She whispered and moved down to suck on his erection and he opened his mouth and gasped, tilting into the heat of her tongue.  
He struggled to keep his thoughts clear as she savoured him and the taste of his tissue. He grabbed the sides of her head and flexed upwards. It had felt like so long since he and Stefan had touched each other. The scent of roses around him was almost suffocating.  
“Trigger.” He whispered and she hummed. “Trigger!” He said a little more emphatically, but she ignored him.  
He panted and tried to push her face away but she increased her efforts.  
“You want more impossible babies?” He grunted and she stopped.  
He exhaled and watched her release him, looking up in surprise.  
“Unless you use the trigger, there will be more monsters.” He said and she pulled back, clearly considering this.  
She’d made it perfectly clear what she thought of Vida and Toby. He watched her struggle with her desire. A heat was for that purpose and Stefan’s body was driving her to become pregnant. It demonstrated just how much control Stefan had to have to fight against that.  
She looked to him disappointed but in agreement and he gave a small nod.  
“Concentrate on your…” Damon tried to think of how Stefan did this. “…think of your eggs. Now think of them not releasing.”  
She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on that, but it was difficult. It had been such a long time since she had been alive – it was hard to remember the sensation of having a heat in a woman’s body. She sighed in frustration and looked to him for aid. He sat up and placed his hands on her shoulders.  
Concentrate.  
He channelled and she nodded, soothed by the touch of his hands and focussed again. She felt a strange clicking sensation inside of her and opened her eyes in surprise. He raised an eyebrow at her.  
Lay back.  
He instructed and she did so. He leaned over her, sniffing around her stomach. She enjoyed the light touch for a few moments before he sat up and nodded his head.  
She looked at him, waiting and he felt anxious. He had to do this thing now. He hesitated, unsure how to begin and she opened her legs to let the scent of Stefan’s body hit his nose. He flushed and became erect on cue and she cooed to him to lie on top of her.  
Show me how much you love him. Prove it and I will spare you both.  
His heart raced and he climbed on top of her, opening her legs and nuzzling in at Stefan’s neck. If he could just pretend it was Stefan, he could get through this. He began to scent and stroke her sides. She let out sighs of delight and pleasure and he drifted down to Stefan’s chest, licking there and remembering the thousands of times he’d made love to this body.   
He suckled at Stefan’s nipples, reliving his memories as he concentrated and allowed his inner wolf to come forward. She writhed under him and held him. He opened her legs wide and inserted himself slowly. Her response had him pausing as she shouted loudly and let her mouth fall open. He breathed harshly – trying to calm the wolf inside of him who wanted to pound into its mate, to bite and claim and breed.  
Eve looked at him, tears in her eyes and gasping. He closed his eyes. Those eyes weren’t his mate. He moved inside of her and lay his face back in at the neck, breathing in the scent of Stefan’s skin. His muscles were a little rusty from having been dead for hours but he got his groove on after a few minutes and rocked into her deep and fast. She began to moan and cry, clutching him tight. He didn’t want to look at Stefan’s face and see someone else there, so he bit down to drink and she shouted loudly again and climaxed in a whirlwind of panting and cries.  
He slowed and stopped as she panted and held him. He licked over the bite in Stefan’s neck and nuzzled it with his nose. He closed his eyes. He could do this. He lay still on her, allowing his stamina to return and she began to cry. He lifted his head and looked at her, still buried deep inside of Stefan’s body.  
“I’d forgotten.” She wept and he sat up slowly and removed himself, hiding the fact that he hadn’t released his seed, from her.  
She seemed much too involved in her own sensation right now anyway. She’d climaxed so quickly.  
She reached down to touch Stefan’s manhood and grimaced at the seed on her stomach. Damon looked around for his clothing and noticed it by the mouth to the cave. He stood up and retrieved it, returning to her and wiping her off with his t-shirt. She watched, still weeping and he sat back, covering his manhood with the fabric.  
“It was different.” She whispered and he looked to her. “I don’t remember feeling so…safe.” She commented and he blinked a few times, trying to understand her meaning. “So much of my life surrounded creating my progeny. There wasn’t much time for love during it.”  
He thought on that. Grandma had known she was going to be killed, so she’d purposely had as many children as she could and had them created with the extra gene to allow her return afterwards.  
“Why did you wait so long? It’s been a thousand years.” He asked and she rolled onto her side and brought her legs up, rolling backwards and forwards slightly and he watched fascinated.  
He’d seen Stefan do that when they had been animals. It must be for ensuring the sperm met the eggs.  
She didn’t answer. He watched her gyrate for a few minutes and he yawned.  
“Again.” She said and he nodded.  
Strange, this heat felt like business to him. His inner wolf was much easier to control than usual. Still, it was as though his wolf knew that Stefan wasn’t really here. Maybe that was why.  
He climbed back over her once more and assumed his previous position when she cupped his face and made him look at her rather than place his face in at her neck. He tightened a little in discomfort and she gazed at him, stroking his cheekbones with her thumbs.  
“Stefan is lucky.” She whispered and he reached down and inserted himself inside of Stefan’s entrance again.  
She closed her eyes and released his face and he began again.  
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“What do you mean he’s not here?” Nisha asked incredulously and Nathan rubbed his eyes tiredly and sighed.  
He slammed the door closed as he climbed back in and sat down.  
“Beth says he got a call and then he left without telling her where. He hasn’t been back for hours. She’s worried.” He said, sitting back in his seat.  
Nisha still hadn’t turned off the engine, feeling anxious enough about being anywhere near the Hybrid. She turned to him. Nathan sighed again.  
“She’s approaching heat.” He mumbled. “This is a nightmare.”  
“Beth?”  
“Yeah. It won’t be long. She’s already jumpy.”  
Nisha sat back and exhaled, thinking.  
“Something’s wrong.” Nathan chewed his lip and Nisha huffed, almost sarcastically. “He wouldn’t leave her in this state. His senses are more acute than ours. He’d have smelled that she was entering heat long before anyone else could and yet he left her alone, based on a phone call.”  
Nisha looked to him.  
“Perhaps he just doesn’t care.”  
“No.” Nathan shook his head.  
Of course Nisha would feel that way about him. He was a monster in her eyes – uncaring, evil and cruel. He had ruined her life, her family, by sending hybrids to capture more wolves. Her husband had died and then she’d miscarried. He had to remember that.  
He looked to her.  
“Whatever else he is, or feels…he loves her. Of that I’ve no doubts at all. He gave up his blood to Constance to make sure Beth got Toby back, remember.”  
Nisha swallowed, trying to fight the immense feelings of hate and disgust she felt and he reached over and put his arm around her shoulders. She looked to him, seeing only admiration and empathy and found herself fighting off tears of grief. She still hadn’t really dealt with everything that had happened. He moved nearer to her and pulled her down against him. She lay her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. His scent was so comforting.  
“If I see him I don’t know what I’ll do Nate.” She whispered, allowing a few tears to spill silently and he nodded and kissed the top of her head in understanding. “I’m afraid of what I’ll become, of what I’ll want to do to him.”  
He didn’t know what to say. What could he say? He couldn’t possibly understand what she was going through. To lose your mate was awful enough, but your baby too? How did someone survive that?  
“You’re the strongest person I know.” He whispered and she turned in his embrace fully and put her arms around his shoulders.  
He held her, stroking her back and squeezing her slightly. They sat for a few minutes like that, before separating. She drew back from him slowly, giving a sheepish smile and he didn’t say a thing – not wanting to make her feel more exposed.  
“You would have liked my husband. He was fond of camping, like you.” She smiled, wiping her eyes. “We met on a hike a few years ago. He liked to mountain climb, it made him feel closer to nature when he got higher.”  
He smiled in encouragement.  
“Like you are god somehow.” He said and she nodded enthusiastically.  
They fell into comfortable silence as she cleared her head.  
“What do we do now?” She asked and he felt himself tense up again at the prospect of the disaster they were faced with. “Try calling Damon again?”  
“I tried. There’s no answer.”  
“He’s still not channeling?”  
“We must be too far away. So far we’ve only been able to channel a few miles away from each other.”  
“But…” she frowned and he looked to her again, “We’ve ended up doubling back a lot. We’re nearer to camp than we were before Eve ran off.” She pointed out and he chewed his lip as he thought on that. “Damon can’t be at the camp anymore then.”  
“Unless, something has happened to him.” He mumbled, anxiety filling him. “Unless he can’t channel back.”  
Nisha waved her hand dismissively.  
“Let’s not start panicking. He can look after himself. He’s a vampire.”  
“A vampwolf.” Nathan corrected and she raised an eyebrow and ghosted a smile.  
“He can fend for himself. Besides, wouldn’t you feel it if he died?”  
He thought on that for a moment.   
“I don’t know. I mean, when you’re mated you would begin to die too but we aren’t connected like that.” He shook his head.  
“But you are his Beta and you are connected to him through telepathy. You’d be bound to feel something surely.” She questioned and he gave a small nod as he considered that. “So let’s go on with the assumption that he’s fine – he’s just not at the camp. Have you called Bonnie?”  
He pulled his cell out. How had he forgotten about Bonnie? He dialled the number and Nisha looked to the road ahead, tensing when she saw Beth walking towards them.  
“Hey Bonnie…” Nathan began to converse and Beth glared at Nisha and came to her side of the car.  
Nisha tightened in challenge and stepped out of the van confidently. A werewolf bite might not be able to kill vampwolves, but it would sure as hell hurt.  
“Where are the Salvatores?” Beth asked tersely and Nisha folded her arms.  
“That depends.” She replied and Beth clenched her jaw. “On whose side you’re on, Stefan’s or Klaus’s.”  
“What are you talking about?” Beth exhaled annoyed.  
Nathan hung up his cell and stepped out of the van, worriedly and looked to them both.  
“Nish…”  
“No Nate. She should know what’s happening here. She should know what’s at stake.”  
Beth looked to Nathan.  
Concern.  
Beth channelled and Nathan rubbed his eyes, torn. Stefan had wanted them to warn Klaus, so they’d know that it wasn’t him in his body. He’d almost begged them all to make sure Klaus knew. But…it didn’t feel safe.  
Beth moved to him and touched his shoulder and he looked at her wearily, trying not to twitch his nostrils at the inviting aroma of her impending heat.  
What’s happening? Family.  
“Tell her.” Nisha sighed.  
He sighed and looked into her eyes. He hoped to god that this was the right decision.   
Show me.  
She asked and he took a deep breath, looking at Nisha for a second before he turned his focus on Beth. They were sharing memories Nisha realised and she watched in awe. After a few moments, Beth stepped back and blurred away from them. Nisha caught her breath and looked off in the direction she’d gone, while Nathan pulled out his cell again.  
“What’s happening?” She asked and he shook his head non-committal. “Nate?”  
He moved past her and climbed into her side, into the driver’s seat of the van and she watched confused.  
“What are you two plotting?”   
He ignored her and that hurt. They’d been through so much together. Was he really just going to pull the silent treatment on her now?  
“I won’t ask you to come with me. You’ve been through enough.” He said and moved to put the van into gear, when she put her hand on the sill of the door.  
“You think I’m just going to let you go off and get yourself killed?” She demanded and he looked at her, torn. “This isn’t your world, it’s theirs and if you’re going to stand a chance of surviving, you’ll need help.”  
“Nish…”  
“Move over.” She insisted and he shook his head. “Move over! I won’t let you throw your life away!”  
He looked to her again and flinched at the power emanating from her. He slid across and she opened the door and jumped in behind the wheel again. Beth appeared at that moment, holding Toby and Nathan nodded to her. She moved to the back of the van and climbed in, in a flash, closing the door behind her. Nisha turned to him, feeling stress bubble up in her already. Clearly these two had some kind of plan. She just hoped they’d clue her in on it.  
“We’re going to survive this Nate. With or without Damon.” She reassured and Nathan gave her a tight smile and looked to the road ahead.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
“Yes, yes, uhhh! Stick inside me, stick inside me!” Eve cried under him, but he just couldn’t.  
Robotic sex he could do, but he couldn’t mate. He couldn’t finish or release. He rammed her hard, attempting to give her the release she wanted but his body knew somehow and he slid back out. She grabbed at him fiercely, desperately.  
“I can’t.” He panted.  
“Try harder!” She growled like a mad woman.  
“It’s not going to work. You’re not my mate!” He said angrily and pushed her back down onto the ground.  
She sagged onto the floor and he raised himself onto his hands and tried to catch his breath.  
“I can’t.” He said quietly this time.  
“I feel like I’m dying!” She croaked and he climbed off of her and sat down, cupping his manhood.  
He’d given it his all. He really had, but he just wasn’t into this. His inner wolf had given up a while before. He might as well be banging an inanimate object.  
“I’m sorry.” He sighed and part of him meant it.  
She sat up, pulling him to her and climbed into his lap. He held her stiffly and she slipped him inside of her, beginning to move with intent.  
“You have to end this. You have to.” She chanted and he closed his eyes as she tried her best to milk him.  
Stefan’s body was trying to work like normal but the problem was that neither of them cared about the other and that didn’t make for a mating experience. Without love, they were just going through the motions.  
He grunted, opening his mouth to a spark of pleasure and she growled and rode him harder. The cave filled with sounds of their flesh impacting. Eve became vocal, enjoying him and pushed harder until he fell over onto his back. She rode full force now, pinning him down and he looked up at her in fear. It almost felt like she was trying to squeeze out his soul in this attempt.  
“Stick, stick…” she began to chant, when there was a flash of colour and she was ripped from his body.  
He yelled and held his manhood in agony, rolling onto his side. The pain of having her wrenched from him was so intense that he couldn’t breathe. He panted and tried not to vomit as he heard struggling sounds and bones breaking. He couldn’t even react, the pain was so bad. He rocked himself, panting in pain until there was silence and he opened his eyes.  
“Enjoying yourself were we?”  
He frowned, blinking and trying to see through the mist of pain in his vision.  
“Whatever would dear Stefan think, mate?”  
He widened his eyes and groaned.  
“Klaus. What are you…doing here?” He struggled to verbalise, bringing his legs in towards his body to protect his still aching manhood.  
“I received a rather interesting phone call. Strange how you failed to mention my impending attempted murder, the last time we spoke.” Klaus walked towards him casually and he panted and looked up at him. “Is that any way to treat your future midwife?”  
“What did you do to her?” He pushed himself into a sitting position and Klaus knelt down so they were at eye level.  
“Who?”  
“Eve.” He swallowed nausea. “Stefan’s body.”  
“Ah. You mean the hell wolf who’s been trying to kill all of us for months now. You’re awfully pally for mortal enemies Damon.”  
“Stefan’s body’s in heat!” He defended angrily and Klaus sniffed, as though just noticing the aroma for the first time.  
Damon watched as realisation dawned on Klaus’s face and he began to chuckle.  
“How inconvenient for her.” Klaus grinned and Damon frowned at him, shaking his head. “Clearly, that’s put a spanner in the works.”  
“She’s taken Stefan over. Pushed him into limbo. I can’t get her out.” Damon grunted and Klaus stood up again and hummed thoughtfully.  
“Perhaps, Stefan’s body is the best place for her.”  
“What?” Damon tried to stand but couldn’t, crumpling at the pain in his groin and grunting.  
Klaus smirked and looked at him.  
“A wolf in heat without satisfaction could be just the kind of hell she deserves.”  
Damon looked at him in fear.  
“Perhaps it’ll soften her resolve.”  
“What are you talking about?” Damon demanded.   
“I think it’s time grandma got some of her own medicine.” Klaus grinned to himself and Damon’s eyes widened in anxiety. “If she wants to see evil, that’s what she’ll get.”  
“If you harm his body I’ll kill you!” Damon growled and Klaus cocked his head and narrowed his eyes.  
“I’ve lived a long time and I’ve never know a soul to survive days outside of a body mate. Stefan is gone. Doesn’t mean his body won’t be useful to us still.”  
“What?” Damon leaned against the wall and managed to stand, still holding himself.  
Klaus looked over to the corner of the cave and clicked his tongue. Damon followed his line of vision and huffed at the sight of Stefan’s body broken and laying in a heap. He felt his veins tingle and his teeth protrude in anger and Klaus looked to him smirking.  
“As a spirit she can harm us – she’s shown us that much.” Klaus commented and Damon looked back to Eve again. “But trapped forever inside a body that’s weaker than mine…well.” Klaus chuckled as Damon’s eyes widened.  
“Better the devil you know mate.”


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter 40 TH

Damon fought, tooth and nail with Klaus, until Klaus had simply broken his neck and carried both of them over his shoulders out of the cave. Clearly Damon didn’t agree with his plan to trap grandma in Stefan’s body forever. His heart was getting in the way and Klaus wasn’t entirely sure whether his heat-addled brain wasn’t feeling something for grandma as a result of their mating pheromones. Feelings couldn’t be allowed to get in the way here. Grandma had to be stopped, put down permanently. He wouldn’t risk any more attacks. He wouldn’t allow this creature to best him and keeping her inside a young vampire body was the best way to do that – perhaps the only way.  
He’d dressed them both as best he could and carried them to his truck, throwing them both in the back. He could almost hear Elizabeth’s objections now. She loved Stefan deeply – they had a shared connection that none of the others understood. Their experience of childbirth to impossible children had then bound together. She would side with Damon, believing Stefan to be alive and waiting somewhere. What nonsense. In all his years he’d never known a soul to last long outside of its body. Even in Haiti where he’d watched the most prolific demonstrators of power of black magic and voodoo perform rituals to rid bodies of demonic spirits and possession, had he ever seen the native soul to the body survive. In a lot of those cases, the body died as a result of expelling the evil spirit or soon afterwards as the organs gave out from the strain of the ritual itself. He’d often wondered if the native soul had been expelled with the demon as they’d all borne witness.  
One thing had become quite clear from his teachings of that variety – a human soul was easily perishable. Out-with the confines of its own body – it died with days and if what his informant had told him was true, then grandma has been back earthbound for nearly a week.   
Stefan was gone.  
He sighed regretfully and shook his head. He would have time to feel grief over that later, right now he had to protect himself. He began to drive, plotting where would be best to store them until he could find a witch willing to bind grandma into Stefan’s body permanently. His informant in New Orleans had some ideas on how to get a witch to cooperate. His other problem would be trying to stop himself going after the vampires who’d aided grandma in bringing the baby soul-sucking spell to fruition while he was there. Beth and Toby had occupied his mind lately, stopped him thinking on exacting his revenge for the part that his old acquaintances had had in almost bringing about his end by helping her. They’d also tried to take steal the babies afterwards, to use against him and enlisted all of his hybrids in their bid to escape him.  
He ground his teeth together as he recalled that battle – of them holding he, Stefan, Vida and Beth prisoner in that cave to make sure that the spell would drain him so they could end him. He’d enjoyed every scream of horror and agony as he hunted every last one of them down and ripped them apart, until he’d been so depleted by the spell that he’d had to crawl into a sewage pipe to desiccate.  
He would get his revenge. He would just have to bide his time until Beth was unaware of his intentions and then he’d go to New Orleans and exterminate the lot of them. Now wasn’t the time. Perhaps after he had fixed grandma for good, but then, Beth would suffer greatly at the loss of Stefan and she’d need him.  
He exhaled through his nose and chewed his lip. He had to focus on the issue at hand. He pulled up as he reached one of his old storage buildings. He’d kept his family’s coffins here briefly when he had been moving around and had decided to keep the deed in case he found use for it later. He was thankful he’d done that now, as he couldn’t take Stefan’s body back to the house. Beth would hate him for what he was going to do. She wouldn’t understand. She was a gentle person, who couldn’t stand to see torture. Even after he’d made her a vampire, that part of her personality had only magnified. She’d found killing difficult, almost impossible and had learned the craft of taking small amounts from many, rather than kill someone every day to enjoy their last drops. She and Stefan were similar in a lot of ways.  
Stefan. He felt his chest tighten as he opened the truck and lifted Stefan’s body out. His brother in arms for a time being, slayer of Michael, friend. Or he had been. He had to make grandma pay for what she’d done to him. She’d lain Stefan out for being bred by someone who wasn’t his mate, mutilated his body to make him unnatural and doomed forever to be a broodmare to Damon. As much as they both denied that it had changed their relationship with each other, he could see that things would never be the same for them. First brothers, turned lovers against their will – a simple flaw in their biology and now a confused new species with desires and instincts no one could possible help them with.  
It was a little like it had been for him, albeit he hadn’t undergone a mutilation to his reproductive organs, but his transformation into a hybrid had come with its equal share of advantages and disadvantages. He was the first of his kind and therein he had no one able to understand or empathise with his new abilities and feelings. He’d been unable at times to control feelings of rage, paranoia. These had all been part of his human personality anyway, heightened by vampirism, but in releasing his inner wolf these aspects came into full bloom. At times he’d had to shut himself away – fearing that he may lose his mind. Instincts ran deep in wolf blood and they were so different from vampire ones that at times he’d felt at war with his own mind and body. After a while he’d begun to understand things a little better. His hybrids he’d been able to study and learn about wolf nature from. Of course now…that was all over.  
He threw Stefan’s body to the ground and locked the door behind him as he returned to retrieve Damon. As he walked back carrying the still dead body, he pondered on his loss. Bonnie had brought him back from hell – the most real hell he’d ever imagined, under the promise that he’d be stripped of his wolf nature. She’d cursed him again, as his mother had done and turned him back into a vampire. Just a vampire.  
Perhaps there had been a tiny part of him that had been glad of the rest from the constant war in his body, but for the most part he felt grieved and angry. Clever little witch. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t break the spell without sacrificing Stefan and his beloved Beth, as their blood had been mixed in to ensure that they would die if he tried to have the spell lifted from himself.   
He lay Damon on the ground and locked them in the room. There were pieces of furniture still stored here. They’d be very useful for his purposes now. He moved with vampire efficiency and arranged a bed, dumping Stefan’s body on it and then chaining it securely at the wrists and ankles to each corner of the bed. He’d leave her clothed and enjoy watching her heat drive her mad. He’d get immense satisfaction from that. She had robbed them all of their reason, their logical minds and left them to breed during the spell. Those that had survived still suffered in memory of what had happened – their helplessness over new urges and the intense need of needing to be bred and satisfied. He’d rarely had any reactions to another wolf’s heat, but he had seen it take over his hybrids at times. It had been fascinating to watch in its entirety. Amusing to watch the pecking order being influenced by it as they tried to compete for the few female wolves that he’d managed to catch and turn. They’d taken to fighting to resolve any mania. It was all so deliciously primal.  
Grandma would get to experience the pain of a heat with no resolution. Clearly Damon was incapable of ending hers anyway – Don Juan failed. He chuckled to himself as he looked over at Damon. Odd, considering his sexual prowess, but then, grandma was not Stefan. His smile faded as he reasoned on that. Damon lived for Stefan. It made sense that Stefan’s absence, made Damon’s body fail. Still, from what he’d heard as he’d approached the cave, Damon had given it his best effort.  
He moved to him and dragged him to the furthest recess of the room, chaining him down too so that he wouldn’t be able to interfere. He wanted Damon to be visible at all time to grandma. Just a little out of reach of her insatiable body.  
He brushed himself down, whistling as he grabbed an armchair from the pile and sat it in a position that would grant him the best view, so he could enjoy what was to come. Yes, payback was in order here. A grin spread across his face as he felt his skin tingle with excitement. Not being a wolf any longer was very convenient for the first time – no mania or uncontrollable urge to breed her. Instead he’d get to simple observe.  
Damon moved, grunting and he looked to him calmly.  
“Stefan.” He mumbled and opened his eyes, blinking to clear his vision when he saw the bed.  
“Thank you for joining us dear Damon. Tonight’s performance is going to be aptly entitled ‘Revenge’.” Klaus beamed as Damon looked to him, still confused. “Make yourself comfortable mate. The show’s going to be a long one.”  
Amidst the rattling of chains as Damon tried to pull free from the wall he’d been attached to, grandma stirred, a throaty cry of misery emanating from her mouth as consciousness began to return and Damon licked his lips, feeling his stomach drop.  
Fear.  
Damon channelled and Klaus looked to him again and smiled, raising an eyebrow before responding.  
Revenge.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Stefan sat, gazing out of his window, watching the autumn leaves swirl around the grounds of his home. The winds had picked up in the last few weeks, cultivating in periods of showering amber leaves - all chasing each other in circles like a dog chasing its tail aimlessly. It was a season that he had loved as a boy. He’d taken such comfort in the colours surrounding their home, in the smell of the wind and the soil changing, preparing for winter. Oddly, now as he watched the visible decay of the summer greens, he felt nothing. The same nothing he’d felt for the last few weeks.  
He looked down at his side table to the half empty pots of pills sitting there. They seemed to stare at him as though sentient, daring him to lift them up and empty their contents, challenging him almost, to swallow every last one of them. He wanted to. He hadn’t wanted anything so much in his life, but he was afraid. Afraid of death, of not knowing where he would go. He wouldn’t simply disappear as Damon had done. No, this was his reality and everything he’d learned in church since he could remember, invited only eternal damnation at the prospect of self-murder.  
He closed his eyes tight and shuddered. He wouldn’t find Damon in hell. Of that he was sure. Damon had faded and then disappeared, taking with him all of the evidence of his brutal murder and all of the proof that he had existed at all here. The nurses and Dr Lockwood had seen him with their own eyes and so he knew beyond a doubt that he hadn’t imagined him. He wasn’t crazy. Or he hadn’t been at that point. Now though…  
He’d fallen under suspicion when the body had disappeared. His strange behaviour and outbursts prior to Damon dying had only increased worry amongst his colleagues that he was becoming a liability. Many good men had lost their reason after the war. Many men better than him, had had to be locked in asylums under the facade of being cases in ‘treatment for war madness’ studies and trials. The reality of their lives in these institutions differed very greatly to the images painted for their loved ones of support, empathy and respect for war heroes. He’d even heard of suggestions of removing pieces of brain tissue to lessen the trauma for these poor souls.  
He’d never felt so physically sick in all his life at the prospect of that being done to someone, whom could give no consent.  
Thankfully, Giuseppe would never allow something like that to be done to him. It would be a shameful scandal. He was a Salvatore and he was supposed to be a survivor – strong enough and young enough to get through this.  
How Stefan had wished it were true.  
When the investigation into what had happened in the hospital that night fell through due to lack of a body or any real evidence other than the blood soaked room, Stefan had gone into a rage. He’d frightened people with his temper, wrecked his office and began to investigate himself, ending perhaps unsurprisingly, with him being removed from his role and medicated by Dr Lockwood.  
He’d taken the drugs, knowing fully well how little it would take for him to fall off the edge and end up in the institution. War madness had become a blanket under which so many people’s illness had been stuffed. He couldn’t let it happen. He had to find out what was really going on and he could only do that if he stayed at home. So he'd taken the pills, the advice, the bedrest. He’d suffered it all – the numbing to his senses, the shaking of his hands and his inability to concentrate. Now, everyone was beginning to believe that he was getting better, that he’d return to being their prized dog – Dr Salvatore, best young doctor, a man of society and breeding, a good father and son, a good man.  
Odd how he never realised that he’d been playing all of those parts for a long time without feeling them. The only one he did feel was really him, was of being a father. Now that, that would never change.  
He turned his head when he felt a hand placed on his arm and looked into innocent, childish eyes. How he adored those eyes, so like his own. Those eyes were the only thing that warmed his heart lately. Vida was the only one Elizabeth permitted to see him until he was better. His two sons were too young and would be frightened to see him a shadow of his former self.  
“Papa?” Vida chirped and he blinked and gave a small smile.  
“Hello angel.” He mumbled, his throat dry for lack of use.  
She searched his face and he lifted her slowly and sat her on his lap, facing the window so she could see what he was looking at. She relaxed back against his chest and he closed his eyes, breathing in the smell of her hair, feeling the warmth of her. Tears beckoned and he fought them. She seemed to pick up on his change of emotion and squirmed until she could turn in his lap and look at his face.  
“What’s wrong papa?” She asked.  
“Nothing angel.” He said and stroked her hair. “I’m just tired.”  
“Do you want some soup?” She asked innocently and he sighed.  
How like a child to think that all ailments could be cured by some homemade soup from the kitchens. He gave a small chuckle and shook his head.  
“No, I’ll be fine.”  
She searched his face again for a long moment before throwing her arms around his neck and embracing him. He held her, rubbing her back and cooing. She climbed up onto his knee and he sat back.  
“When are you going to be better?” She fidgeted with her loose curls.  
“Soon, angel.”  
“Are you scared of going back to the war papa?”  
“No.” He frowned, wondering what her little ears had overheard. “I’ve just been a little tired lately.”  
“Mama said you might have to go away for a little while if you don’t feel better soon.” She said, her lip beginning to tremble and he pulled her to his chest and rubbed her back again.  
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m not going to leave my girl am I?” He tilted her back, smiling in consolation and stroked a few tears from her soft cheeks as she gave a little nod.  
“Where is Nonni?” He asked and she wiped her face with her sleeve.  
“He was in the stables with Peter.”  
“What’s he got Peter out there for? Where’s Miss Flora?” Stefan frowned.  
Peter was only 2. He shouldn’t be out in the stables.   
“Peter wanted to see the new horse Nonni bought.”  
Stefan’s breath left him for a moment as he stared at her.  
“A new horse.” He repeated and she nodded unaware of the rising tension in his body.  
“Nonni says now that I’m bigger, he can teach me how to ride.” She beamed at him and he felt his heart stop.  
“What?!” He gasped and pushed her back a little so he could see her face. “He said what?”  
“Please papa.” She said simply and he shook his head.  
There was no way that she was getting on a horse, not now, not ever. What the hell was his father playing at? Was he testing her? Testing whether the animal would see her as a potential demon too like he had with Damon? Is that why he had Peter with him out there? Stefan had been emphatic about this topic – none of his children would ever learn to ride. He’d never take the chance that something could happen to them or that his father would begin to wonder about their ‘purity’.   
His thoughts began to race and he shook his head.  
“No you will not!” He said loudly and she began to become tearful as he rose to his feet and carried her.  
“Please papa I want to ride!” She began to cry and he tried to walk towards the hallway to confront Giuseppe.  
He’d been taking so much of the medication though, trying to hold his mind together, that his body felt sluggish and weak.   
“Father!” He shouted as he struggled to carry her weight and move and he heard footsteps approaching his room.  
Vida put her arms around his neck, afraid of any conflict as she buried her face in at his shoulder. Giuseppe entered perturbed and looked to them both.  
“A new horse?! Are you insane? What the hell are you trying to prove?” Stefan verbally attacked and Vida curled into him in response.   
“What are you babbling about?” Giuseppe asked vexed and looked to Vida.  
“I told you, none of them will ever ride a horse. I told you no!” Stefan spat, feeling himself begin to shake and Giuseppe looked again to Vida in his arms, looking slightly concerned.  
“Papa.” Vida gurned and Giuseppe put his hand out towards him to calm him.  
Stefan exhaled and rubbed Vida’s back, realising that he was frightening her as she sobbed. Giuseppe approached slowly, treating him as though he was an animal about to lash out at any second and Stefan gritted his teeth in anger.  
“She’s my child and I will not have it father. I won’t have you testing any of them.”  
Giuseppe paused, frowning and then realised what Stefan was suggesting. He scoffed and reached out, intimating that he should pass Vida over.  
“Come on my girl. Come to Nonni.” He said and Stefan held her tighter.  
She looked from Stefan’s face to Giuseppe’s and he saw her internal struggle. Truth was that although Stefan knew that she should obey her father, her grandfather had spent more time being a parent than he had. GGiuseppe had been ruling the household lately.  
Stefan kissed her hair and reluctantly handed her over to his father. She resumed her former position on Giuseppe, tucking her face into his neck for comfort as he cooed to her and looked to Stefan angrily.  
“You’re obsession with this Damon nonsense has to stop, son. You’re going to end up driving yourself truly mad and us along with you. She’s a perfectly respectable age for a rider. She will be a lady of this house in a few years and she should behave accordingly.”  
“Who are you to decide who she should be? My whole life you’ve tried to shape me and still I disappoint you.” Stefan kept his tone as calm as he could for her benefit. “She will be who she wants to be.”  
“And if she wants to ride?” Giuseppe countered and Stefan looked at her, frustrated. “Would you try and stop her if she wants to?”  
“I said no.”   
“Please papa.” Vida turned her head to look at him and she seemed so tiny and vulnerable, like a little bird.  
“It’s not safe, angel.” Stefan croaked.  
Giuseppe was a clever bastard. How long had he been working on Elizabeth to get her to allow this? How long had he been whispering into Vida’s ear about horse riding?  
“No.” He repeated, but with less confidence.  
Giuseppe set Vida down onto her feet and told her to go to her mother. He closed the door behind her and turned back to Stefan, who by now was shaking visibly from the strain of the argument and weakness of his body.  
“I should never have told you about Damon. It’s poisoning your mind.” He stated, crossing his arms to make himself appear larger and Stefan licked his lips, feeling like a child once more.  
“He was my brother, you couldn’t have wiped him out of existence forever.”  
Giuseppe exhaled, frowning as though he was thinking of that possibility.  
“Son, it was a terrible accident a long time ago. That is all. You have to let him go. Turning this stranger in the hospital into him in your mind is…I mean it’s is truly insane!”  
Stefan gritted his teeth as Giuseppe continued.  
“Do you know how much of my influence and that of Dr Lockwood’s it’s taken to keep everything about this all quite? Henry is fond of you, he knows you can be a great doctor, but here you are taking opium, strangling your patients, imposing the identity of your dead brother onto an already ill man! It’s shameful!”  
Stefan took a deep breath and stayed calm.  
“Oh yes, I know everything!” Giuseppe snapped at him, turning away from him to pace. “I knew about your opium habit before this all came to light but I thought that at least you could control yourself. You nearly killed that man and then what would have happened?!”  
“How could I forget father?” Stefan almost chuckled mirthlessly and Giuseppe looked to him. “How could I ever forget what I might become when every day of my life you’ve reminded me? I have lived with the weight of this curse on me since the day you forced me to ride! Since the day you admitted that you hated your own son. That you felt only relief when he died.”  
Giuseppe huffed dismissively.  
“How do you think that makes me feel huh? If you can hate one child, then you can hate the other too.” Stefan stared him out and Giuseppe licked his lips nervously.  
“You and he are not the same Stefan.”  
“And what was it about him that differed so greatly from me at his age? What enormous evil did he commit to deserve that kind of hatred father? Please, tell me because I’ll lose my mind before I ever believe that a child could be so deserving of death!” Stefan spat.  
Giuseppe held himself tight. Silence fell between them.  
“How did you make that horse throw him?” Stefan asked calmly and Giuseppe paled. “I know you planned it.”  
“You’re talking nonsense Stefan.” Giuseppe said dismissively.  
“We both know you killed him father. Admit it, for the sake of my sanity.”  
“Never.”  
Stefan shook his head and returned slowly to his chair. Giuseppe lingered, unsure.  
“Your family needs you son. You have to let go of these notions.”  
Stefan burned to tell him just how sure he was that the stranger who’d been murdered was their Damon grown to adulthood, but he daren’t. They really would send him to the institution if he tried to say he believed in other worlds and people dead here crossing over to this one. He’d probably have locked himself up if he’d been his own patient.  
“Your children need you.”  
Stefan closed his eyes and exhaled.  
“For the meantime, I make the rules in this house. Vida will have to marry in a few years and I won’t have her at any disadvantages socially. She will learn how to ride safely and efficiently and you will not frighten her like this again.”  
Stefan gripped the sides of his armchair tight, making the leather squeak and Giuseppe came up behind him and lay his hands on his shoulders. It was unclear whether this gesture was meant to aid in soothing him or as a demonstration of will.  
“Perhaps different pills may help alleviate your nerves, son. I will ask Henry to drop by later to see you.”  
Stefan gave a stiff nod and Giuseppe patted his shoulder before leaving the room. Stefan looked out at the leaves chasing each other in their never ending marathon and sighed. He could do nothing while he was weak and vulnerable. He had to do something to protect his family. He reached inside his dressing gown and retrieved the small painting of his brother. He traced the features of the young face tenderly. Damon. The boy Damon. The eyes were grey, being black and white but he remembered the intensity of their colour in real life. He’d stared at this painting for hours when he’d found it – mapping out every inch of the face and knowing the whole time he did so that there was no denying that the man who’d been lying in his hospital, laying on the battlefield, were one and the same.  
He exhaled and tucked it back into his inner pocket. Where did he go from here?  
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What will Klaus do?  
Nathan channelled to Beth in the back of the van, unable to see her due to the lack of window to the rear.  
I don’t know. Fear. Anxiety.  
What do you think he knows?  
He’s still so secretive. We have a long way to go before he will tell me how he really feels about everything that’s happened, perhaps a very long way.  
He must know that Eve is back. He’d never just up and leave you unless it was something major.  
I agree.  
Nathan sighed in frustration and Nisha looked over at him.  
“You’re channelling?” She asked and he nodded. “What’s she saying back there? Why is she coming?”  
“He loves her. If he tries to do something stupid…she’ll be able to talk him down.”  
“Stupid as in, killing Stefan’s body, or Damon, or all of us for that matter.” Nisha huffed and looked back to the road ahead. “Aren’t we wasting time going back to the camp? We know Damon’s not there anymore. Shouldn’t we be trying to find him?”  
Nathan shook his head.  
“We need Bonnie. She might have an idea.” He said.  
“For what? Eve has run off to god knows where, Damon is missing too and now we have a homicidal hybrid hunting one or both of them down!” She huffed. “What can Bonnie do about any of that?”  
“I’ve seen this girl work so crazy magic.” Nathan patted her knee comfortingly. “She’s so powerful and smart. She’ll figure something out.”  
“You really put a lot of faith in people you hardly know Nate.” She shook her head and looked to her in surprise.  
“I could say the same about you.” He commented and she flicked her eyes to him. “How long have you known me and we are here, driving towards the man who killed your family, because I’ve asked for your help.”  
She swallowed hard and looked back to the road.  
“I mean, how can you trust your life in my hands any more than in Damon’s or Bonnies?”  
She exhaled and gave a small shake of her head. He continued to watch her think it over as they fell into silence. He returned his attention to the road and relaxed back into his seat, trying to plan ahead. Bonnie said she’d been studying her grimoires and she thought she had found something, something that clearly had her worked up but she hadn’t wanted to discuss it on the phone. Thankfully their detour with the rapist pack had had them doubling back towards the camp already anyway. They be there soon enough, he just hoped soon enough to formulate a Klaus plan too.  
“I knew I could trust you from the first moment we met.” Nisha mumbled and broke his chain of thought.  
He looked at her in surprise and she gave a small smile. He felt his heart swell at that and he stared at her. She looked to him and he realised that he’d been staring for longer than was considered to be platonic, so he blinked and looked back to the road, clearing his throat.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
“Please!” Eve screamed, writhing on the bed and trying to get some friction from her clothes to alleviate the burning age in her loins.  
Klaus chuckled and stretched, relaxing in his chair, while Damon tried repeatedly to break his chains without Klaus noticing.  
“Easy, love. It’s just a little heat. One would have thought that you’d be accustomed to the experience now, given how many days you watched the rest of us frolic around at your mercy.” He couldn’t contain his delight at her torment.  
She sobbed fresh tears and looked towards Damon pleadingly.  
“My mate…” she sobbed and Damon closed his eyes, cringing at the scene.  
“But he’s not your mate love. You’ve just killed his mate and stepped into his skin. He feels nothing for you. Isn’t that so darling Damon?” Klaus looked to him grinning and Damon shuddered and didn’t respond.  
“Damon!” Eve cried out. “Please!”  
“Damon doesn’t care love!” Klaus laughed now and she screamed and struggled to break free.  
“Why did you bring me here?” Damon croaked.  
“I thought you’d want to see this Damon. I thought you’d enjoy watching her suffer like she made us suffer.” Klaus said pointedly and Damon looked down at the ground as she called out to him again.  
“I’ll have a mania.” He pointed out.  
“No, mate. Nature took care of that.” Klaus dismissed and Damon looked to him frowning. “A bond like yours isn’t rooted in the flesh. It’s in the soul, in the mind. Stefan is gone, therefore your body has resolved itself now.”  
“But my bond…”  
“In place still. The physical aspect of your blood will keep her mated to you but you can’t bring her the satisfaction she needs now. Your heart just won’t be in it.” Klaus chuckled a little as Damon watched him, trying to seek out any evidence of trickery.  
“Relax mate. We deserve to bear witness to this.”  
“I’m going to kill you!!!” Eve screamed.  
“I can’t die love.” He answered and returned his gaze to Damon as she continued to threaten and shout.  
“Let me go.” Damon pulled at the restraints. “I’m not your prisoner.”  
“Aren’t you?” Klaus raised an eyebrow, amused. “Tell me, when were you going to warn me that Stefan had been hijacked? After she’d made an ill-fated attempt?”  
Damon looked to him confidently and didn’t respond.  
“And it didn’t occur to you that I have enough power to have gotten a witch to forcibly remove her. Stefan could have been saved.” Klaus dropped the smile and accused him in anger.  
Damon felt winded. In all of their considerations, going to Klaus for help hadn’t been one. Could he have done something?  
“Thought all of your little friends had run off and deserted you after you killed all of your trained monkeys.”   
“Who needs friends to volunteer there aid when you can simply force their hand?” Klaus sat back and exhaled, troubled by their contemplations. “Stefan is gone.”  
Damon let out a ragged breath. Klaus’s affection for Stefan was still as strong as it had been then. Maybe he could use this.  
“He’s not dead. I’ve seen him.” Damon said and Klaus looked to him sharply and narrowed his eyes. “He’s somewhere in limbo, in another Mystic Falls. He’s re-living his human life.”  
“What?” Klaus frowned and Eve broke out into full weeping now as she thrashed.  
“His soul is still alive. Somehow the spirits of our family are keeping him there so that he can become a whole soul again.”  
Klaus stood up and moved over to him, crouching down so they were at eye level.  
“How do you know this?”  
“When I die I go there, as if I’m drawn back to him.” Damon explained.  
“How did you get back?”  
“I died and woke up here again.”  
“You died?” Klaus frowned.  
“I am human there, just like Stefan.” Damon gave a small nod and Klaus stood up again and turned his back pacing.  
“Could it be possible?” Klaus raised an eyebrow, directing the question more at himself than Damon.  
“Thought you always had all the answers. You tell me.” Damon sighed.  
Eve stopped thrashing and looked towards them listening. Damon looked to her and swallowed.  
“She promised to return him to his body as long as we didn’t get in her way.”  
“Did she know? Well that’s a tall order, love.” Klaus moved towards her and she cringed away from him. “And how would you do that, given the fact that you are neither a witch nor a traveller. You’re parlour tricks must have been wonderful so far but you see, I have lived for over a thousand years and I know that now you are in this body, you have no more power than our dear departed Stefan did.”  
She spat in his face and he chuckled as he wiped it away with a tissue from his pocket.   
Damon’s heart began to beat loudly in his ears and Klaus looked back to him.  
“I see she had you convinced otherwise.” He commented and Damon’s face reddened in growing fear and horror. “She has no more power than you do to bring Stefan back, mate. Whatever bargain you made with her…well, it doesn’t matter now.”  
Damon could feel his lungs closing up and he tried to breathe out his fear.  
“What else did she tell you?” Klaus came to him, observing his rising panic and bent down to break the chains holding him.  
Damon was so invested in panicking that he barely seemed to register the fact that he was no longer bound.  
“She said she could leave the body whenever she chooses.”  
“Nonsense. I have body jumped on several occasions and I need a witch to pull me out and pop me back into myself each time.” Klaus helped him up from the ground.  
Damon looked to her and began to harden. She shook her head and tried to reach out for him. He took a step towards her and Klaus put a firm hand on his shoulder in warning.  
“Now, now mate. We want to enjoy her heat for a while longer before we resort to physical violence. You have to take your time with these things, draw them out if you want to get answers to your questions.”  
“I’ll never tell you anything, monster!” She growled at him, showing Stefan’s fangs.  
“Oh you will, love. Everyone does eventually. I think you just need some appropriate cause.”  
“You can’t damage Stefan’s body.” Damon said, his voice tight and laced with venom towards her.  
“That’s somewhat true I suppose.” Klaus nodded in contemplation. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t still make her suffer.”  
Damon looked to him questioningly and Klaus gave a small smile, before sticking his hand through Damon’s ribcage.


	41. Chapter 41

So sorry for all of the spelling mistakes in the last chapter guys – truly awful! I hate when people spell there, their and they’re wrong and I did it in spades! I was still jetlagged when I wrote and my laptop seems to want to skip letters at times. I need a new one. Anyway, on with the story.

I just wanted to add a warning on some of the content here also – I claim to have no intimate knowledge of the real people we call travellers or gypsies. I mean no offense to anyone who may classify themselves as such. The travellers/gypsies in this story are based on fictional representations of them, aided by the Vampire Diaries version of them also. I hope no one takes offense at anything I write about them here – this is a work of fiction only.

Chapter 41 TH

Damon’s eyes bulged and he choked as he felt Klaus’s hand squeeze his heart. Eve shouted out in fear.  
“What are you…doing?” Damon wheezed, grabbing Klaus’s arms and Klaus smiled at him calmly and looked towards Eve.  
“At first I thought I’d be satisfied watching you suffer a heat alone, but I don’t think that really fits the bill.”  
Damon gasped, almost vomiting, bent in towards Klaus and Eve watched Damon with a terrified look on her face. Yes. That was the kind of fear he wanted. Damon would be the key.  
“So, instead perhaps the agony of a broken bond might be more…apt.” Klaus said calmly and she looked to him, shaking. “There’s no pain quite like it. Is there Damon?” Klaus nudged Damon and he gagged all the more and grunted in pain.  
“What game are you playing?!” Eve shouted and Klaus’s eyes grew large in delight at the panic coursing through her body at the thought that Damon would die.  
“I’m being kind. Merciful – unlike you.” He said dangerously. “Unlike you, I’m going to grant Damon here the quick death that you would deny him. Despite the fact that he helped you, aided your plan thus far and denied me the company of Stefan, my brother in arms. I’m going to make it quick. Not drawing it out as you have – like you did for everyone attached to your spell.”  
“Klaus!” Damon choked, his body shaking with the effort to remain standing.  
Eve began to hyperventilate and Klaus looked to her as Damon fell to his knees, taking Klaus down with him as Klaus held onto his heart carefully.  
“Unless of course you want me to spare him for you?”  
“What?” She panted, licking her lips and looking from him to Damon.  
“Tell me who your little helpers are and I’ll let you have him. You can disappear off into the world with your mate and never challenge me again. Keep Stefan’s body.” Klaus offered and she shook her head. “It’s a fair deal love. Without Damon alive, that body will die and you’ll just end up in oblivion.”  
“No!” She seethed and turned her head away.  
Klaus squeezed Damon’s heart and he cried out. Eve snapped her head back panting.  
“You want him love. Don’t deny it.” Klaus grinned at her distress and narrowed his eyes as he studied her. “And not just because your body is in heat either.” He clicked his tongue and she paled. “Has dearest Damon reminded you of what it feels like to be loved? To be part of something?”  
She swallowed saliva hard and tried to clear the look of distress from her expression and Klaus gave a small nod.  
“Yes. You picked the right body to feel devotion in.” Klaus remarked almost sadly. “These two are brothers who overcame that attachment to be lovers. Doesn’t happen very often.”  
“Klaus!” Damon growled in agony and Klaus looked to him and sighed.  
“Tell me.” He turned his attention back to Eve. “Who’s helping you?”  
“Never.” She said in control and Klaus shook his head and pulled on Damon’s heart.  
Damon sucked air in so rapidly at the movement that his eyes flew open impossibly wide and she screamed for Klaus to stop. He looked to her, releasing and dropping Damon to the ground flat on his stomach. He wiped his bloody hand on his jeans and looked to her expectantly.  
“Travellers.” She closed her eyes tight, grieved at being so desperate and he stood up as Damon tried to breathe and hold his chest.  
“Obviously.” Klaus snorted. “Names.”  
She rocked her body until she could lean on her hip and look down at Damon on the floor.  
“Names!” Klaus said sternly and she grunted, thinking.  
“It matters not. It’s too late to stop what’s going to happen.” She said and he crossed his arms and studied her. “Even if I wanted to, I can’t stop what’s begun.”  
“And what is that?” He cocked his head predatorily.  
“Balance.” She answered as sweat dripped down the side of her neck and she exhaled.  
Damon got to his knees, holding his chest and struggling to heal. The traveller’s spell had taken a lot of his blood before and now he was struggling. He looked to Klaus, too overcome with exhaustion to be angry and Klaus looked to him, noticing how depleted he was.  
“I see. Well then, I guess we might as well make use of the time we have left if there’s nothing that can be done.” Klaus said casually and Damon squinted at him in disbelief. “Damon, that looks nasty mate. Better feed.”  
He hinted towards Eve and Damon grimaced. Eve looked to Damon and tilted her pelvis in invitation. He shook his head and Klaus took his seat again, almost leisurely.  
“Damon. Feed. Now.” Klaus said calmly but with a hint of threat in his tone and Damon frowned, confused.  
He looked to Stefan’s neck and his mouth filled with saliva. He staggered to his feet and leaned over the bed. Eve looked at the hole in his chest and Stefan’s roses enveloped him in a magnificent cloud of scent. He blinked harshly at the reaction. Stefan’s body was calling out to him, trying to fix him like it always had and he couldn’t resist.  
“No. No…” Eve mumbled half-heartedly, now realising why Klaus was encouraging this.  
Damon leaned in and bit down into the fount at Stefan’s neck. He drank hungrily but not to hurt and Eve arched up, whimpering and feeling the heat in her loins increase at his proximity.  
“No, stop…stop Damon. Uh..” She panted, reeling from the blood wave he was igniting but he began to realise as she began to pant and moan in pleasure, that this was why Klaus had shown some force.  
He wanted Damon to feed on her and drive her insane, further increase her desperation and Damon wouldn’t have fed on her willingly. He swallowed deeply, feeling her near orgasm and he began to stroke Stefan’s sides, pulling back to lick a long strip of Stefan’s neck. He moved back from her, stumbling back to sit down on the ground again, just before she could release and Klaus gave a small chuckle. She panted and groaned, looking to Damon desperately and inebriated.  
Damon lay on his back and exhaled, closing his eyes to ignore her as he felt his body healing.  
“Nice.” Klaus commented.  
Now her want for Damon would be even more heightened. Klaus smiled delighted.  
“Don’t blame Damon love. He’s under my control now, as are you. I can compel him to do whatever I want. I could compel the answers out of you easily, but I find myself rather eager for your confessions.” He smiled evilly and she began to sob, realising that she had bitten off more than she could chew.  
“Stefan’s body produces more blood for his mate daily. Often without the need to feed itself.” Klaus added and she closed her eyes tightly.  
Klaus meant to continue Damon’s feeding but not hers. She wouldn’t know the bliss of connecting with Damon that way and Klaus certainly wasn’t going to permit Damon entering her to try and end this heat. She looked to Damon, feeling raw and hopeless. She should never have allowed for feelings.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
“How did he get away Marcus? How?!” Andrea asked hopelessly as they scoured the surrounding area for any trace of their runaway vampire-shaped compass.  
He shook his head, focussing down on the bowl of Damon’s blood and concentrating. The blood was dead now and not connecting to Damon any longer. He didn’t understand why. He’d spelled it to track him. The only reason he could think of was that something had happened to their vampire prisoner. He must be dead or much depleted of blood. If he needed to feed he could though, so why allow himself to drain? He didn’t understand it.  
He’d noticed the vampire appearing more and more pale despite being left to feed for hours earlier. Perhaps Damon had figured it out and was starving himself intentionally? But that wouldn’t serve his purposes either. Damon wanted them to do the spell to sever his blood link to the original wolf as much as they needed to find the source of their magic.  
“What do we do now?” Andrea asked. “Do you think he’s been killed by something?”  
“No. He’s strong, he’s a mate, not just a normal wolf descendant of hers. The wolf side of him would keep him going though. I’m sure of it. Not like that human potential we captured.” He looked at her and she nodded, grimacing at their failure to keep the human alive.  
“Because he was human, he hadn’t invoked his wolf side yet.” She agreed.  
“Yes. Perhaps we should have allowed him a kill before we tried the spell.” He sighed.  
They’d made their biggest mistake to memory with that young human male. They’d found him wandering, delusional and confused and they’d taken him in for a few weeks, trying to suss out what it was about him that drew their attention. He’d talked of a house where he’d been held, forced to have sex with other people – it sounded like some kind of cult ritual from a movie. He’d been terrified and half mad, talking of spirits and demons. Marcus had simply assumed that the man had been having a drug induced meltdown. They knew of no other travellers around the area and what the man was describing sounded more like black magic. There was no voodoo in this area or for miles around.   
By all accounts the man was traumatised and they’d cared for him for a week or so before he’d cut himself trying to learn how to hunt with them. The blood had had a strange scent to it, almost undetectable to anyone but Marcus, but he’d jumped on him instantly – taking a sample under the pretext of medical aid. The blood had the element in it – the one they’d searched for for so long. It was much weaker due to the man being human and not a wolf or vampire mate, but it was there. He was a relation and a living one at that. Marcus had thought that that would be enough to get the spell to work. They could follow the element in his blood, back to the source where the original wolf had created them, had spelled herself to produce tainted heirs.  
From what they knew from the knowledge that had been passed down through generations, this original wolf had worked with a traveller to infuse her own blood with a powerful element which would ensure her ability to harness it from any others she produced. It was common belief that she hadn’t intended it to be for resurrection, but to help her summon collective energies and use it like they did their magic. In effect she had wanted to create a blossoming fount of energy only she could access through her relations. No one could harness energy unless they were witches and gained it from the spirits or from the earth, but she had found a loop hole. If she was the creator of offspring with the element of magic, then she could draw on it. She could draw from living beings without need to be magical enough to take it from the earth or spirits. The burning question had always been, why had a traveller helped her to do this? Why had this traveller created in her this ability, this monster of nature?  
Travellers drew their energy from earth magic like witches but they had their own connection to the very area in which they had been born. Their magic had been rooted there and always would be. Travellers were much like salmon, needing to return home to the source to replenish their power and to stabilise. Without that connection to the earth of their origin, their magic could be volatile, uncontrollable, and unstable. No one knew how, but the clan had been dispersed, separated and now not one of his ancestors as far back as he could remember, had known exactly where the source was. It had meant that for generations they had travelled around, desperately trying to root themselves and often causing catastrophe. Their magic was in decline now, but for hundreds of years it had enveloped wherever they had lived, sometimes causing death and fear to other humans around them. It had gotten them shunned, cast out. They’d been cast in history as evil, traitorous fiends – tricksters trying to come into your home with offers of trade and friendship, whilst secretly trying to steal and harm your loved ones.  
The term gypsy has been coined for them and the connotations of that word still ran deep in the modern world. In truth they had been nothing more than desperate people, lost and in need of somewhere to settle – to live, to work, to try and find their own harmony, but the power they had running through their bodies had always been too great and unfocused. They frightened other people. They frightened themselves and in time many of the clan had grown bitter and resentful – lashing out and embracing the role that had been bestowed on them. Some had learned voodoo and black magic practises, cheapening their magic with parlour tricks and dark intentions to become exactly what people feared they were.  
Marcus had never allowed this tribe of people to fall into that dark path. Bitterness and black magic generally only resulted in evil and further death. He had held steadfast to the mission to find the source and return the balance to his people that had been so lacking in their lives and energy. He’d lived several lives, jumping each time he was going to die, into a younger body offered up to him in sacrifice as their leader and guide.   
They all understood that if they didn’t find the source soon their magic would run out. All of their heritage would be snuffed out and they’d be hunted by witches – the do-gooders. He understood that witches only tried to keep the peace amongst the magical, but they had fallen prey to all of the superstitions about travellers like the human populace had. Travellers were rats to be disposed of, not people. It had to end. If only he could find witches who would listen. Who would look past their prejudices?  
“Waste of a potential.” Andrea sighed next to him and returned him back to his present thoughts.  
They had taken the blood from that human potential forcefully at times, to try and use him like a compass to the source, but the man was weak and had died from shock at the last drain of his blood. In their desperate attempts to get the spell to work, they’d taken too much and pushed the fragile body too far.   
He’d borne the guilt of that. Not only had they foolishly lost their only link in decades to the element and source, they had killed an innocent, confused young man. They’d all felt grieved in many ways - Cassandra especially. He looked back at the sleeping body of his daughter, locked in that stance until the vampire said differently and sighed again. That vampire couldn’t be dead or she would have awoken free of his compulsion. He was still alive somewhere and they had to find him. He couldn’t lose his Cassandra. She was so pure and special. Her powers were very weak – her tap into their remaining magic so depleted that she’d been the only one he’d trusted to care for the human potential as they had been trying to spell his blood.  
She had cared for the man, nursed him and fed him despite her disagreements with their plan. She was a gentle person, unwilling to harm others. She was what they had all once been. Once they got to the source and balanced themselves, the fire in their blood, then she could be a guide back to how they should behave, how they could be again - healers. Perhaps then, the world would change their outlook on them, treat them with equality. It wouldn’t happen straight away, there was so much baggage and fear and hatred. It would take a long time for them to lower their shields too and not be constantly on the defensive of attack.  
“Marcus.” Andrea stopped, noticing a cave which carried the smell of blood from within.  
He ran ahead of her and into the cave, stopping short at the smell of sex and blood. He held his hand to his nose and looked around sharply. The scent of blood was syrupy – definitely full of the element. Damon must have been here and copulated but with whom and why now? Damon wanted the spell done ASAP, so why stop to have sex with someone? It didn’t make sense.  
He looked around carefully, trying to piece it together. There were signs of a skirmish, broken pieces of rock from the wall as though there had been a fierce power struggle, pieces of torn fabric from men’s clothing lay on the ground also.  
“What does it mean?” Andrea came up behind him and he shook his head. “I know vampires are highly motivated by sex, but his mate is dead. Surely his body can’t anymore, he’s expiring.”  
“We have no idea how long they live after one has died. I tried to get the research done by a scientist decades ago about it, but the mate escaped their custody and was never seen again.”  
“Its bond was broken though?”  
“Yes. Completely. The blood changed somewhat. We know the one they had died because their samples tainted even more after the escape. The little I tried to spell after purchasing it was beyond our magic anymore. Completely dead.”  
“Maybe it’s not true that if one dies, so does the other. Maybe it’s myth. Maybe we have more time than we accounted for before he dies.” She offered and he exhaled.  
“Perhaps.”  
He looked around, unwilling to comment. They simply didn’t know. For a long time he’d tried to capture a mate or one of the descendants and he’d always failed until their human potential. Others out in the world had their own reasons for interest though and had managed where he had not. He’d heard of vampires, human scientists and even witches hunting the sparse supply of the bloodline for their own uses – their blood was potent and full of magic untapped by the earth and spirit world. A few cases had come to his attention but all had ended in death of the subject before he could get near them or negotiate for their blood. In the last case, he’d managed to procure a sample for testing with magic. The sample had been from a female mated vampire, but she’d escaped and by the time he’d gotten the blood it was long dead as was she evidently.  
He slammed his hand on the wall, knocking off some dust.  
“If he has enough blood in him to have sex, then he must have enough for us to try again.” She reasoned and held the bowl of blood out to him again.  
He nodded, but didn’t hold out much hope. He waved his hand over it and chanted his spell to awaken their pull on Damon’s body again.  
“Where are you vampire?” He whispered as they waited and watched with glee as the blood glowed once more.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Nathan helped Nisha out of her side of the truck, surprising her as they arrived back at the camp. She blushed slightly as she accepted his hand and he closed the door behind her. They hadn’t talked much on the drive back, perhaps both too nervous at what was to come.  
Beth climbed out of the back, suddenly full of uncertainty at being back with the very pack that had stolen Toby from her and held him to ransom for Klaus’s blood and promise not to hunt them down. She held Toby tight as Nathan came to her and channelled safety and trust. She closed her eyes tight for a second, allowing his channelling to calm her.  
No one will hurt you here Beth.  
She opened her eyes again and nodded at him, taking in how Nisha watched them closely.  
“Keep that alpha away from me.” She said to him and Nathan nodded in understanding. “I don’t trust what I might do to her if I ever see her face again.”  
Nathan hugged her and pulled back to coo to Toby, who was looking around with curiosity in his expression.  
“Hey little man, we have a friend here who you might like to play with again.” He smiled and Toby blinked at him.  
“Where is she?” Beth eased a little at the thought of being reunited with Vida and he put his arm around her shoulder and guided her as they walked.  
Nisha gave him a nod and went on ahead to ensure that Bonnie would join them in Ian’s hut. Nathan snipped deeply, unsure which hut was the right one. The last time he’d been here, everything had been so crazy. He was surprised that they hadn’t moved camp like they had intended to, but he could tell they were still here.  
He followed the scent up to a door and chapped on it politely. Ian came and answered and immediately brightened to see him, welcoming him in. Beth stayed behind him, unsure and uncomfortable. He turned to her and ushered her in ahead of him. She entered stiffly, looking around for any sign of threat as she entered into a lounge. Vida was playing with a rattle on the ground near a fireplace and she immediately went to her, kneeling down as Vida looked up at her face.  
Family. Hello little angel. Remember me?  
Vida stared at her, dropping her rattle and Beth smiled and set Toby down next to her. Toby and Vida looked to each other and reached out. She smiled as they sniffed and pulled at each other’s arms in curiosity.  
“Who..?” A startled voice spoke upon entering the room and Beth looked up to see a nervous young wolf looking between her and Vida in fear.  
“Isabella, this is Beth – Toby’s mother.” Nathan came towards Beth and lay a hand on her shoulder.  
Isabella relaxed a little but she was still nervous.  
Vida made a small shout and Toby giggled as he lifted her rattle to suck on.  
“Of course.” Isabella gave a small nod and Beth straightened up confidently.  
The stench of fear began to permeate the room and slowly Beth realised why.  
“Klaus isn’t with us.” She said to reassure and Isabella swallowed and looked to Nathan.  
“He’s gone too.” Nathan confirmed.  
“Grandma hasn’t..?” Ian began and Nathan shook his head.  
“No. Klaus is alive.” Nathan sighed suddenly and felt the weight of their journey settling on him and forcing him to sit in a chair.  
Beth looked to him in sympathy and returned her attentions to Vida and Toby, now fighting over the rattle.   
“I don’t know where to start.” Nathan rubbed his face and Ian sat beside him as Nisha entered with Bonnie.  
Beth watched them all as they settled around the tired Nathan, comforting him and offering him food. They did seem to trust him and to care for him. Nisha sat next to him and was given some hot coffee as Nathan began to describe what had happened with Eve.  
Bonnie approached Beth once he had told the story and knelt to sit with her, smiling at how big Toby had gotten.  
“Tell me you know how to put an end to this Bonnie.” Beth pleaded and Bonnie sighed. “What’s happening?”  
“I wish I knew, understood everything.” Bonnie sighed again and chewed her lip as Toby reached for Beth and his eyes tingling in hunger.  
“I love him Bonnie. I know none of you understand that, but I do. I love Stefan too.” She said as she lifted Toby and shushed him.  
“I know.” Bonnie smiled sadly.  
“There has to be a way to save both of them. She is the one who needs to be destroyed.”  
Beth felt the tension in the room. She was outnumbered by people here who would see Klaus die alongside Eve. The unilateral consensus was that Stefan be saved as the only priority.  
Grief, anger.  
She channelled as she kissed the top of Toby’s head.  
Understanding, compassion.  
She looked to Nathan and he gave a consoling smile.  
“I didn’t come here to fight any of you on this matter.” Beth said.  
“Why did you come here?” Ian asked, crossing his arms.  
“I love Stefan too. He’s my kin, as is Nathan.” She said. “But I didn’t come here to help you kill the man I love either.”  
Tension radiated from everyone. They daren’t say what they were thinking out loud lest they start another war.  
“Where did Damon go?” Nathan asked Ian.  
“He went to some travellers he found. He wanted them to break the blood connection to Grandma, so that the babies and any future descendants wouldn’t carry the element in their blood anymore.” Bonnie jumped in, explaining.  
“Why?” Nathan frowned, sitting forward.  
“I’ve never seen him so without hope Nate. He was setting things up for he and Stefan dying. He really believed that Stefan was gone.” Ian said and Nathan felt bile rise in his throat. “He offered himself to make sure that the travellers would break the link and he hasn’t come back. We don’t know what happened to him when he left here.”  
“And we had another complication.” Bonnie grunted. “The wolves that attacked the camp when you were under the last moon were targeting either Stefan or Damon. They looked like they were planning an attack.”  
“How could you let him leave?” Nathan looked to them all, aghast.  
“Damon believed that they knew Stefan was gone and the best thing to do would be to leave and let them chase him right to the travellers. The travellers wanted Damon alive in exchange for doing the spell. They’d protect him against the wolves.” She explained and Ian look stunned.  
“And…you know his resolve better than anyone.” Bonnie pointed out and Nathan rose to his feet, pacing.  
“So far everything has been quiet. We haven’t as much as sniffed another wolf since he left. The camp the other pack were staying in, is deserted so they must have followed him, just like he suspected.” Ian added.  
Nisha exhaled, watching Nathan pace worriedly.  
“Something has happened to him. He hasn’t channelled for…I don’t even know how many days it’s been.” He looked to Nisha, feeling raw and exhausted and she rose and supported his back and she rubbed there, laying her head on his shoulder.  
“Maybe he’s too far away.” Ian suggested.   
“Maybe he accomplished what he set out to do. Maybe he severed the link.” Isabella said and they all thought on that.  
“And then they did something to him, or maybe the wolves came after and killed everyone.” Nathan mumbled. “We would know, wouldn’t we?” Nathan looked to Beth and she zoned out, trying to sense any differences in their connection.  
“I feel the same.”  
“Me too.” He said in response to her.  
“If Damon was dead then Grandma would have started to die and you said she was fine when she ran off?” Isabella asked and he shook his head.  
“That was a day ago. She could be dead for all we know now – if Damon is too.”  
“But Klaus only got a call earlier.” Beth advised. “Whoever his snoop is, if both of them were dead there’d be no immediate threat. Klaus wouldn’t have run off and left without a word, unless they were still alive.” She reasoned and Bonnie nodded, thinking.  
Toby began to gurn and kick his legs unhappily, his eyes tingling and Isabella looked to him. Beth lay him down beside Vida and removed the backpack she had on. She slid the zip open as everyone fell into contemplative silence, the only sounds in the room coming from the crackling hearth and the sound of rustling from Beth’s bag.  
She pulled out some luncheon meat and began to break it up into small pieces. Isabella looked over and frowned as she watched Beth offer one to Toby. Toby took it and began to suck on it.  
“He eats?” Isabella couldn’t help her surprise and Beth frowned at her.  
“Yes.”  
“So he doesn’t..?” She stuttered and Beth huffed.  
“He drinks blood too yes. He’s also vampire.” Beth’s tone was one of defence and Bonnie smiled and helped Beth remove her other arm from the backpack in a peaceful gesture.  
“I’ve tried. I’ve tried to give Vida food, but she won’t take it.” Isabella commented and Beth’s heckles relaxed as she looked to Vida.  
So Vida was still a full blood drinker. She and Klaus had made the decision to allow Toby to try real food too – believing the wolf side of him to need that, but perhaps that was due to how much wolf had been in Klaus – remained still, despite the curse on him. They’d been learning from Klaus all about that aspect of their nature. Stefan and Damon must not have seen the need right now.  
“I have some fresh food in the back if you’d like some for him? Do you…” Isabella began nervously and paused as Beth looked to her again, “…I can heat up Klaus’s blood for you if you want it warm?”  
Beth frowned in confusion before realising what the young wolf was suggesting. She looked to them all and swallowed.  
“We are not…mated, yet.” She looked down, blushing. “I’m…animal blood or a donation would be welcome.”  
Isabella and Ian moved to the kitchen to fix some food for Toby and to process Beth’s declarations privately and Bonnie lifted Vida, grabbing a bottle of Damon’s blood for her as she squirmed.   
They thought we’d mated.  
She channelled to Nathan and he gave a short nod.  
Did you think that?  
No. I can smell that you aren’t.  
She blushed and nodded silently.  
That’s why they were afraid at me being here, even more.  
Yes.  
He confirmed.  
I’ll still fight for him to live as much as I would if he were my mate.  
I know.  
He gave an understanding smile.  
Help me save him from himself. Grief. Longing.  
Nathan exhaled, nodding tiredly and felt his body begin to drift. When was the last time he and Nisha had slept? He couldn’t even remember. When had they last eaten?  
Nisha seemed to come to a similar conclusion as he sagged next to her and she stood up.  
“We need to get some sleep, unless you can clue us into your plan Bonnie?” Nisha asked.  
Bonnie looked up from feeding Vida.  
“You said you’d found something?” Nathan blinked hard.  
“I think so.” Bonnie said carefully, measuring her words now that Beth was listening. “I think I’ve found a way to get our Stefan back.”


	42. Chapter 42

Chapter 42 TH

Stefan watched in trepidation. His heart in his throat. His fingers gripping the sides of his chair in unease and veiled terror as everyone around him remained unaffected. How could everyone be so calm? It made him bitter. He could almost taste it in his mouth. He swallowed thickly and looked to Elizabeth at his side. She was happy, enthused even.  
He shook his head slightly and tried not to panic. If he were to have an ‘episode’, he’d simply be given more meds and separated from his children again and he needed them. They were his lifeline.  
“Papa!” Vida’s small voice called out and he looked back to the lawn again. “Papa look!”  
He gave a watery smile and she grinned happily.  
“That horse, it’s too large.” He said, his throat hoarse with lack of use and Elizabeth sighed.  
“She’s fine. The other children ride horses of that size.” She said, somewhat irritated but not wishing to appear cold and harsh to her husband.  
Stefan watched, pained as Giuseppe led Vida past, walking the horse around as Vida got used to the feel of the animal. It had happened despite his wishes, his anger, and his threats. Yes, Giuseppe had gotten his way regardless. Vida had cried, bawled against his chest when he’d tried to explain why he wouldn’t allow her to ride. Giuseppe had known that he wouldn’t be able to refuse her tears and he’d been right. He cracked and had had to allow it. He loathed that she had been so happy when he’d agreed to a trial run.  
The summer breeze made him shiver slightly and he tried to ignore his discomfort, leaning forward to watch the horse closely. It wasn’t that he feared horses. They were magnificent animals. He loved animals, but the fear in him ran so deep as to the power they had in a simple trot, a slipped place of footing, a kick or rearing up. The consequences for a human rider could be catastrophic and his little angel was in saddle. Try as he might he couldn’t help the memory of the child Damon’s death, from overshadowing the vision of her happy little face. Still, Giuseppe had taken lengths to point out that if she learned to ride and became accomplished at this, then she would know how to read the animal, gauge its mood. She’d know how to respond if the animal was spooked and be able to take some action. No one could say they could ride without fear of uncertainty. Even professional racers could still be harmed in the event of an accident. Still, the more Vida knew and understood the less likelihood of injury. As Giuseppe and Elizabeth had both argued, Stefan couldn’t wrap her in cotton forever. Some day she would marry and then her fate would be in the hands of her husband. Life lessons before that happened were vital.  
He felt a soft hand on his shoulder, felt the warmth and tenderness of it and he looked up into Miss Flora’s concerned face. He felt his body relax and gave her a small smile.  
“Rest easy Master Stefan. Little one is in good hands.” She smiled back at him gently and handed him a cup of steaming tea.  
Unusual on a summer’s day to have the tea hot, but she was almost psychic in her ability to tell when he was ill at ease. He noticed, quite pointedly, that she only came bearing the gift of tea for him, not for his wife.   
He accepted it gratefully and took a sip. Flora remained for another few minutes to watch as Giuseppe beamed proudly at Vida’s ability to remain upright on the saddle. Stefan began to relax, sitting back in the chair and watching as Vida giggled and talked animatedly to Giuseppe. He felt his heart sink a little. Giuseppe clearly doted on Vida as she did on him. They were very close, it was obvious. How had he missed that? Had he so convinced himself that his father could even conceive of his Vida being what Damon might have been? Perhaps he had. Now, watching them together…no. He could see that now. This wasn’t a test. Giuseppe was giving into the whims of his rather persistent grandchild with love and affection.  
He felt himself smile gradually as he continued to watch, Vida waving to him. Perhaps this was a good thing. Perhaps this would help him with his mistrust of his father after all.  
Days passed and she rode every day, getting more confident. A lightness seemed to begin in his chest and he could feel his body growing stronger, his mind beginning to recuperate. He began to wash daily and dress himself, much to the surprise of his servants. He had to get better, healthy again and for the first time in what seemed like years, he actually wanted to. He wanted to live, to see Vida grow and marry. He wanted to see her flourish into the strong, confident woman he’d always hoped she’d be.  
Things between he and Giuseppe were getting slightly better too. They fought less, often sharing the parlour on afternoons – both of them reading and enjoying the silence of that. Elizabeth wasn’t quite ready for him to return to their marriage bed, but he felt no desire to lately. They had grown apart, so far apart that he began to view their marriage in light of that of a business relationship. Of course he thought fondly of her, respected her as his wife and mother of his children, but they had been married so young. The marriage had been arranged and not grown upon the foundations of love. He wondered on whether he should feel grieved at not feeling guilt over the breakdown of anything more than their arrangement. Truth was that he wasn’t sure he’d know love even if it sought him out. He knew love of his children and it sufficed.  
He still thought of the man Damon, now growing unsure of the events that had transpired. Had his mind tricked him into believing some of it? The more he recovered, the more clinical he could be about it all. Perhaps he had been on the precipice of madness more than he’d realised.  
He brushed his suit down, looking at his face in the mirror. He looked more like himself than he’d felt for such a long time. His skin was back to normal colour, his eyes no longer glassy now that he had stopped taking the medications. He had survived the worst. Today was his 30th birthday. Strange how much older he looked than that, still the fashion in men of this year was to adorn their faces with moustaches and this had the common effect of making a man appear older, wiser. He wouldn’t stand out.  
Giuseppe was throwing a party for him, hoping to demonstrate to the rest of Mystic Falls and his business partners that Stefan had now recovered fully from the war madness -that his son had triumphed at last. He was yet again to be a prized dog of sorts. This kind of reaction, used to bother him so much, but he found himself ambivalent to it now. He had come through more than one war and he didn’t mind the scrutiny any longer. If he could recover, then so might others. With this in mind he had discussed the possibility with Dr Lockwood, of beginning a new role in the nearest hospital for veterans. He could understand the damage done to their minds so much more than their current care givers.  
Dr Lockwood had thought it a marvellous idea and had set up that he should begin as soon as possible. He was ready. He felt ready. He gave himself a sharp nod in the mirror and took a deep breath.  
A knock sounded at his door and he turned around to beckon them in. It was Flora. He smiled warmly in greeting and she entered, admiring his new suit.  
“You look so grown up.” She fussed, brushing him down and straightening his clothes and he chuckled.  
“Considering I have three of my own little ones, I’d hope so.” He said affectionately and she chuckled too.  
There was something a little odd in her expression though and as she continued to attend him he caught one of her hands.  
“What’s troubling you?” He asked, searching her face and she swallowed, her eyes slightly damp.  
“I’m just so glad to see you back to yourself master Stefan.” She smiled and he continued to study her. “You gave us all such a worry for a while.”  
“I’m sorry.” He said earnestly and rubbed her shoulder.  
He had thought very little on how frightening his mental breakdown must have been for some of them. He’d seen it most in his children, but he’d given little consideration to Flora, his Flora – woman who’d nursed him from birth and been his mother after his mother had died. He’d do anything for this woman.  
“Wars are never kind, even to victors. They destroy more than what see with our eyes.” She rambled, buttoning up his jacket and he nodded.  
They spent a few minutes in comfortable silence, before she patted him towards the door and the waiting guests. He gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek and left to attend. She looked around his room and exhaled. He had survived this and she was glad, relieved. They’d all been unsure how he would handle this. Perhaps she had made a mistake in allowing this particular incarnation to occur and yet, the true spirit of Stefan had still battled through. This was what life was, the life he should have known and it made sense that the best way to reunite him with the divine, would be to let this play out. If only Damon hadn’t come here and disturbed it.  
She still didn’t understand how he had managed such a thing, but she had no doubts as to how he had been dispatched from this world. Giuseppe had made his intentions to protect Stefan’s soul clear and she couldn’t step in. That wasn’t her role here.  
She began to tidy his things back into his armoire when a small painting fell out of the pocket of one of his jackets. She looked down to it and sighed. It was the child Damon of this world. She picked it up, shaking her head. Stefan’s mind was pulling things through into this reality and there was nothing they could do about it. Damon should never have existed here in this place, but Stefan’s mind had pulled him through – perhaps unable to conceive of a life without him. It was worrying. The selection of the name Vida for his child here had worried them also. Despite these truths bleeding through his subconscious, Stefan still had no memory of his true self. It must stay that way until the end.  
She considered removing the painting and disposing of it, but she paused. This was not her role. She was simply here to keep Stefan rooted here and to guide him, not to interfere. She slipped it carefully back into his jacket and hung it away. She would simply need to keep an eye on him until Damon could be forgotten.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
“Enough. She’s had enough.” Damon sighed, watching as Klaus freed one of Eve’s hands so she could touch Stefan’s aching erection.  
“There’ll never be enough.” Klaus disagreed, shaking his head.  
“Klaus.” Damon said and Klaus looked to him. “Enough.”  
Klaus narrowed his eyes at him.  
“Compel her.” Damon said and Klaus turned to him fully and crossed his arm, looking amused.  
“You giving me orders now mate?” Klaus chuckled, staring at him hard. “Going soft on me are you?”  
“Think!” Damon huffed. “There’s so many other ways to make her pay. This is only one.”  
Klaus raised his eyebrows as Eve ejaculated into her hand, breathing in momentary relief.  
“What do you suggest? It is your right after all.” Klaus commented.  
“Make her talk. I want to know.” Damon clenched his jaw.  
Klaus paced a little, considering.  
“She knows where Stefan is. She’ll know how to get him out of there. How to make him whole.”  
“I suspect you give her way too much credit, darling Damon. I suspect that she knows no more than you do.”  
“Ask her.” Damon said coldly.  
Klaus looked to her and sighed.  
“Ask her!”  
Klaus bent down over her and she whimpered, finally feeling the fear that he intended.  
“Now love…” he widened his pupils and she stared up at him blankly. “…it’s time you answered a few of our questions. You will answer us both truthfully. Do you understand?”  
“I understand.” She said in monotone.  
“Excellent. Your heat will now end.” He stood back up straight and Damon got to his feet and approached the bed.   
Eve let out a relieved exhale as her whole body sunk into the mattress, relaxing. The coiling urgency in her stomach ceased, her burning loins slowly cooling down as Stefan’s manhood mercifully deflated. She panted, squirming in Stefan’s special fluid, now uncomfortable within the confines of the clothing. Damon’s nose twitched as she moved but he remained as calm as before.  
“Who are you, really?”  
“Eve.” She whispered.  
“What are you to me?” Klaus sneered.  
“Your great-grandmother.” She blinked several times and Klaus scowled that it was actually true.  
“What did you do to Stefan?” Damon asked, holding onto the side of the bed for support as he tried to hold back from grabbing her and demanding answers himself.  
“Pushed him to the other side.” She said, almost sounding grieved as she looked to him.  
“Where is that? Why is there a Mystic Falls there?” Damon pressed as Klaus watched, his brows furrowed as he concentrated on every expression flickering across her face.  
“I don’t know.” She said nervously as though she was straining to recall.  
“Why is there another Mystic Falls?! Where is he!!?” Damon shouted and moved to grab her when Klaus caught him and dragged him away.  
Damon fought, growling and Klaus held him until he began to calm, panting.  
“Easy mate. Easy.” He said calmly, letting Damon push him away eventually.  
Klaus returned his attentions to Eve.  
“This place where Stefan is. You know it?” He asked and she shook her head, pained. “It wasn’t of your devising?”  
“No.” She admitted.  
“Do you know how to release Stefan’s soul from this place?”  
“No.” She whimpered and Damon put his face in his hands.  
“Then who has that power?”  
“No one.” She grunted. “No power that I’ve ever seen.”  
“Flora said it had been created for Stefan, just for him and that he had to re-connect with his higher self.” Damon mumbled and Klaus looked to him again. “That if he doesn’t, he could just…pass over into oblivion.” Damon swallowed bile and Klaus blinked hard.  
“He is a half soul. A Halfling.” Klaus thought on that.   
Klaus stood still, considering the ramifications of that when suddenly Damon groaned, wheezing and stooping over slightly. Both Eve and Klaus looked to him.  
“Damn gypsies!” Damon choked as he fell to his knees and grunted.  
Klaus grabbed a hold of him and tilted Dam’s face upwards to look into his eyes. Damon cried out as he felt the pull on his body and veins. Marcus was calling on his blood again. How had he forgotten about them? They would still be out there, trying to locate him – their personal beacon.  
“What is this?” Klaus searched his face and Damon let out a shaky breath and closed his eyes. “What have you done?”  
Damon gave a bitter laugh and leaned on him heavily, feeling as though he may be pulled from his body at the strength of Marcus’s spell. Eve grunted on the bed, feeling his emotion and Klaus looked from to the other before he realised what was happening.  
“You fool.” He chastised. “You made a deal with them. Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to trust a gypsy?”   
“Live and learn.” Damon wheezed and Klaus shook his head.  
“What is the spell? I assume it’s about our conversation?” Klaus recalled Damon telling him of a potential means to break the blood connection between grandma and Toby.  
He hadn’t believed it was possible.  
Damon nodded and Eve frowned, trying to understand.  
That’s not all.  
Damon channelled and grabbed Klaus’s arm tight. Klaus looked into his eyes, opening his mind to him and Damon sent him his memories of his transaction with Marcus about the source. Klaus’s eyes widened, trying to process the stream of information.   
Eve pulled at her remaining restraints, eager to know what they were communicating.  
“I see.” Klaus said quietly and let Damon go to stand on his own.  
Damon looked wearily to the door of the contained they were inside and Klaus gave him a nod of permission. Damon blurred to the door and broke it open, rushing off into the outside as Eve shouted in fear at his absence. Klaus watched him go contemplatively and Eve looked to him, her heart rate increasing again in fear that they were now alone.  
Klaus heard the tempo change and looked to her, studying her.  
“Now.” He licked his lips. “Tell me about your gypsies.”  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Nathan sat forward in his seat, adrenaline infusing his veins to focus his attention. Nisha sat back down with him and he slung his arm around her back unconsciously. All eyes were once again on Bonnie. Bonnie looked down at Vida’s face for a few seconds and Vida closed her eyes, drifting into a nap. Bonnie gave a small smile and rocked her, before looking back at everyone.  
Ian and Isabella had returned from the kitchen, laying out food and a cup of warm deer blood for Elizabeth. They took a seat also. Bonnie drew in a deep breath.  
“I’ve been studying, trying to learn everything I can about the other side. I think it’s where Stefan might be, but we know he isn’t gone. He hasn’t crossed over yet, so there must be an in between place.”  
“Like limbo?” Ian asked and she gave a nod.  
“I think…” she paused as they all leaned in further towards her direction, “that whatever is communicating with Vida is coming from there too.”  
Beth stopped drinking from her cup immediately and stared at her.  
“What do you mean communicating?” She looked to Vida.  
“Vida has been seeing a woman from Stefan’s childhood – his wet nurse Flora. She’s been dead for over a hundred years so she must be communicating from the other side.” Bonnie reasoned.  
“But you said Stefan wasn’t on the other side yet.” Ian said nervously and Bonnie nodded again.  
“No, I feel like he’s in that in between. I can’t explain it. I just know. This Flora, I feel like she is connected to the in between somehow. When she was communicating with Vida, she seemed to carry some of Stefan’s energy with her, as though she’s with him right now. It’s this energy connection that soothes Vida and makes Vida think the comfort is coming from him.”  
“What has she been saying to Vida? How is she communicating?” Beth’s throat was drying up in fear as she thought on it and she looked to Toby chewing on his ham slice.  
She looked to Nathan and he raised an eyebrow.  
Anxiety.  
Tell me.  
Nathan channelled and she sent him the memory of Toby seeming distracted by the ceiling and the tension she’d felt in Klaus every time this had happened. She hadn’t worried so much about it but she had known that Klaus had.   
“Something’s talking to Toby too.” Ian mumbled and Bonnie frowned, trying to re-evaluate what it all meant.  
“The same spirit?” Isabella asked and Beth shrugged.  
“I didn’t think much of it, it was just…I thought he was just…” she stuttered, lifting Toby up into her arms as he squirmed and grunted to be left to play.  
She lifted him up before her face and he looked at her and gurned.  
“Maa..!” He cried and she looked to Bonnie.  
“He doesn’t channel yet.” Beth admitted, unsure how far developed Vida was.  
“I can see what he saw, if I may?” Bonnie asked and Beth hesitated for a minute before trading Toby for the sleeping Vida.  
Vida gurned and turned in her arms to press her face against Beth’s stomach and Beth stroked the fine black hairs on her head to comfort her. Bonnie touched Toby’s struggling form, concentrating and he began to cry.  
Beth cooed at him and began to hum a lullaby to calm him as a look of intense concentration came over Bonnie’s face.  
“He must have enough water in him.” Ian mumbled to Isabella and Beth looked to them both in query.  
“Because he eats food.” Isabella nodded, both of them unaware of Beth’s attention.  
Beth thought on that and remembered the discussion of how Bonnie had used a different kind of magic during their mating spell. She’d followed water into people’s brains and bodies, finding their secrets along the way. She looked to Bonnie again in admiration. What a powerful gift to have. Is this how we would save Stefan?  
Bonnie closed her eyes and Toby stared up at her, no longer crying. He yawned sleepily and Bonnie looked down at him smiling.  
“Bonnie?” Nathan pushed and she blinked hard and looked to them all again.  
“It’s the same woman.” She announced and everyone fidgeted.  
“What does that mean?” Ian asked. “Why communicate with Toby if it’s about Stefan’s connection?”  
“I don’t know.”  
“Don’t all babies see things? I mean, it’s common that young children can pick up on the supernatural. Animals do it too.” Isabella suggested and Bonnie shook her head.  
“This spirit isn’t just hanging around for them to notice though. She actively comes to them and tries to communicate.” Bonnie rubbed her eyes.  
“Are they in danger?” Beth asked alarmed and Bonnie sighed, unsure of herself now.  
“Maybe it’s not just Vida and Toby.” Nisha finally contributed to the conversation and Nathan looked to her enquiringly.  
“What do you mean?” He prompted and Nisha shook her head, feeling embarrassed.  
“Nish?” He held her tighter, encouragingly.  
“Perhaps, we should be thinking along the lines of what exists beyond the limbo. Surely, there’s something else there.” She said and everyone fell into contemplation.  
“You mean like…god?” Nathan said.  
Odd that the mention of something so deeply embedded in all cultures and religion should make them all instantly uncomfortable.  
“Have you ever experienced anything that’d show there was a god? I mean, the God?” Ian asked Bonnie and she gave a short exhale.  
“It’s never a question I’ve asked the spirits. I mean, I’ve been raised a Christian but I…” she frowned.  
“I’ve always believed there was something, but I’ve been raised to believe there are several gods.” Nisha admitted.  
“I’ve never really believed in a God. Granted I never thought in a million years that vampires existed either, until I turned.” Nathan gave an uncomfortable chuckle.  
“Maybe we shouldn’t get too tied up with what we think of as God.” Beth suggested. “We need to focus on what we do know and what we know is that there is something communicating through this Flora person. So what does she want?”  
“She seems to only be giving comfort to the babies.” Bonnie looked down at Toby again who was now dosing peacefully. “They always seem fatigued afterwards, they sleep well.”  
“Like she’s nursing them?” Nathan added and Bonnie nodded. “Well, isn’t that what she did in life? You said she was Stefan’s wet nurse.” He pointed out.  
“Spirits retain their identity after death, so that’d make sense.” Bonnie agreed.  
“So…what? She’s like a guardian angel for babies now?” Isabella asked and they all fell into silence.  
“Why not?” Nisha mumbled. “I mean, babies are so pure and innocent. They wouldn’t understand what would be happening if they were passing over.”   
“Passing over?!” Beth exhaled in fear and held Vida tighter, looking to Toby. “You think they are..?!”  
“No, the babies are fine Beth. They’re healthy, they’re here.” Bonnie cooed to the suddenly terrified Beth in reassurance, wondering why on earth Nisha would say such a thing and cause such panic.  
“They’re new.” Nathan said, not wishing to make the tension and fear in the room worse but knowing that it had to be said. “We don’t know anything about how their bodies work. How they are here. How they even grow.”  
Beth’s eyes filled with tears and Bonnie moved to her, offering Toby to her. Beth held both babies in her arms. Needing the contact to know that both we alive and well and right here in her arms.  
“They’re a miracle. They can’t…” she trailed off, releasing a few tears as Bonnie rubbed her back.  
“I don’t think that they are in danger. Flora, if anything seems to care about them a lot. She’s loving and gentle. Maybe she’s just making her presence known to them.”  
“I can’t lose him.” Beth said to Bonnie desperately and Bonnie gave her an understanding nod. “Klaus would…” she exhaled and shook her head. “He wouldn’t recover from that either. He loves him as though he were his own.”  
Everyone bristled, but Beth was too wrapped up in the need to hold the sleeping babies to care. She scented both of their faces, one after the other and Vida gave a little frown but remained asleep.  
“So, how do we get Stefan back?” Nathan tried to bring the conversation back around to their original topic.  
Bonnie clenched her jaw.  
“By following Flora back to wherever he is.” She said.  
“How?” Ian folded his arms across his chest and swallowed nervously.  
“With Vida’s help. She has a connection to him stronger than anyone else – even Damon. She’s his miracle baby. She shouldn’t have been possible with his male anatomy and yet she grew inside of him.”  
“OK. But how do we use that?” Nathan frowned, tiredness returning and he tried to stay alert.  
“I’m going to try and enter limbo through the channel Flora communicates through Vida with. If I can astral project myself through it, I should be able to get to where he is.”  
“That sounds all kinds of dangerous Bonnie.” Ian shook his head and Isabella looked grieved.  
“Yeah. It’s too risky. What if you get stuck there?” Nathan added.  
“You can’t risk getting lost somewhere in between life and death Bonnie.” Nisha said, looking emotional and exhausted. “What if it kills you, or you don’t get back to your body?”  
Everyone voiced concerns and arguments, while Bonnie listened and considered them all.  
“I’ve thought about all of these.” She gave a small smile. “But, I don’t know how else we could do this.” She said gravely.  
Nathan rubbed his face, wilting.  
“Stefan wouldn’t allow this. He’d never let you risk your life like this. I can’t either. Even if it means that we have to let Stefan go.” He said, pained.  
“Can’t someone else do it?” Beth asked.  
“Can anyone else astral project?” Bonnie looked among them and saw their unhappy, desperate faces. “Then that’s our answer.”  
“We can’t let you.” Nisha shook her head.  
“Listen, it’s been a rough couple of days. I think we all need to get some rest and re-group. If there’s another way then we’ll find it.” Ian summed up and everyone nodded glumly. “Damon might come back and if he does, we’ll figure out what we’re doing.”  
“Klaus may know something, another way. He knows witches. He’s seen so many things.” Beth said and Bonnie nodded.  
“Agreed. We’ll re-group in the morning then?” Ian said and Nathan and Nisha both stood up, relieved to finally get some rest.  
“Beth, there’s a room here if you’d like to stay here with Vida?” Isabella offered and Beth nodded gratefully.  
It felt important that the babies remain together. She’d be able to watch for any communications happening to them. She’d stay up all night if she had to make sure that nothing tried to steal her baby away from her.  
She gave Nathan a nod of good night and he smiled and moved out of the lodge with Nisha ahead of him. They walked, dragging their feet as their bodies began to shut down in fatigue. He walked Nisha silently to her lodge and she turned to him at the door.  
“You ok?” He asked and she nodded. “Nish…what you said about Flora…” he began and she held herself.  
“I need to believe that there’s some force that…that might have been there.” She said, her voice laced with pain and intensity.  
“For your baby.” He surmised and she gave a quick nod.  
“I need to believe there was a spirit who came for him, to help him cross over. He wasn’t…” she paused to swallow. “He was too young to be able to comprehend.”  
He nodded, thinking on that.  
“I like that idea.” He gave a gentle smile. “That there’s some guardian on the other side who comes to help, to comfort.”  
“Yeah.” She gave a lopsided smile and looked down at her feet, fighting tears.  
“Do you want some company for a while?” He asked and she looked to him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean…” he tried to correct himself, explain that his intentions weren’t untoward and she gave an honest smile of amusement.  
“I know.” She said, full of gratitude. “I think I just need to be alone for a little while.”  
“Of course.” He smiled back and took a step back from her. “See you in the morning.”  
She nodded and watched as he walked away to Stefan’s lodge to sleep. She exhaled and held herself tighter. She wanted nothing more than to have a strong pair of arms wrap around her and hold her through the night, but it wasn’t fair to him. He was such a good, caring person and she wasn’t ready yet. It hadn’t been that long since…everything. It felt wrong to be ready to open her heart to someone else. It felt like she’d be cheating.  
She shook her head and entered her lodge, refraining from removing her clothes as she threw herself down on her bed and just closed her eyes, trying to fight the urge to not to think about going after him.


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter 43 TH

Damon stumbled as he tried to follow the pull of the source. Oddly, it didn’t seem far away from where Klaus had kept him. He stumbled his way into the thick of the woods, following his instincts and listening out for the travellers, when he heard voices. He paused, seeking them out. His wolf senses kicked in and he zeroed in a few miles away. It was Marcus. He could hear he and the other woman talking. How had they been able to follow him so quickly? Clearly Klaus hadn’t taken them far from the cave then. That seemed a little suspect. Klaus didn’t seem to know anything about the travellers though.  
As they’d memory shared, Klaus had seemed surprised at the realisation that the travellers were seeking out the source of their magic. Clearly even he had been unable to ascertain that this was why they moved around a lot and had gotten their reputation.  
He thought on what he should divulge. Should he tell Marcus that both Klaus and Eve were nearby? If he did that then they might scatter to the wind in fear of the hybrid. Then again, they were clearly desperate to find the source and he was beginning to believe that they would do whatever it took to get there. It wasn’t every day you wound up with a mate in your grasp and he had the impression that Marcus had been searching for one for a long time.  
He felt his veins pull again as though they were strings upon which he was attached like a marionette and he struggled, leaning against a tree. His every cell wanted to fight being pulled on like a dog with a chain, but then he wanted them to find the source too didn't he? Only when they could find the source would the travellers have enough magic to be able to break grandma's blood link to her kin.  
He took a few deep breaths and felt a strange vibration begin in his toes. He stretched them inside of his shoes and heard them pop. Still, the vibration continued until he could feel it in the soles of his feet. He shook them off, fearing pins and needles. He hated that sensation.  
He felt the pull again and he began to follow it absentmindedly. His eyes strained, looking for something out of the ordinary, some celestial sign that he was nearing this magic reservoir but all he could see was the woods. The vibration grew up into his legs and he grunted in discomfort and stamped his feet as he walked, growing restless until he heard water ahead. He stopped, sniffing a strange current in the air. It smelled like burning. No not burning exactly, something slightly different but dangerous. His fingers began to tingle and he shook his hands, rubbing them on his jeans as he tried to figure out what the smell was and where it was coming from.   
He moved further towards the sounds of water, pushing large branches and leaves out of his way as his path lead him thicker and thicker into dense plant life - he felt for a moment like he was trekking through the amazon, the trees seemed to grow so large and full of leaves and wild life.  
The smell in the air turned almost bitter and he recognised it. It smelled like an electrical burning - as though there was something live and exposed to the elements here. All he could see was a large swamp, full of debris and pond weed. He huffed in surprise, looking around for signs of alligators, when he realised that his face was tingling now along with his hands and feet.  
He touched his face, checking to see if it was his veins protruding but felt just his normal human face and skin there. What was going on? He looked to the swamp again and took a step forward, feeling the urge to get down and stick his fingers in the water, when he heard voices chanting. He whirled around and waited, looking back the way he'd came. It was Marcus and the others. They'd caught up.  
He looked back to the water, feeling the strange urge again and he knelt down sniffing the strange smell in the air. Something about this water wasn't right. Could this be the source? He was expecting some kind of waterfall or something, something epic...but this? This rank pool of murky sludge water full of alligators no doubt? It couldn't be.  
He reached his hand out towards the edge of the bank, when he felt a pull on his veins that almost pulled him backwards onto his backside. He fell awkwardly and landed on his hands.  
"Step back vampire." Marcus warned, walking up beside him and looking down, studying Damon's expression of anger and embarrassment. "Trust me, you don't want to touch it."  
"Touch what you damn psycho?" Damon got to his feet clumsily and brushed his mucky hands on his thighs as he glared at the others pushing their way through the plant life to join them near the swamp.  
"Dead things don't stay dead here. They re-join with nature." Marcus advised and turned to look at the swamp fully, taking a deep breath.  
The other traveller's lay down the sleeping girl Damon had compelled - laying her makeshift stretcher carefully and drawing his attention to her. They all began to sniff the air, eyes wide as though they were all entranced or stoned and Damon watched them closely.  
"Is this the source? This pond full of garbage?" He asked, almost chuckling at how ridiculous that would be.  
No one answered. They were all too interested in the smell of the air and the vibration in the ground around them. He looked to Marcus again, who was kneeling before the water and dipping his fingers into it. The water seemed to ripple endlessly as he removed his fingers and dipped them into his mouth.   
Damon rinkled his nose at that action. The water looked and smelled foul and he put it into his mouth? He opened his mouth to ask what Marcus was doing when Marcus stood upright and locked him in his gaze. Damon narrowed his eyes.  
"You found it." He whispered and the others all came nearer to them both as they tuned in on Marcus's voice. "We're home." Marcus said to them as he rose to his feet slowly and looked around again.  
"Seriously?" Damon snorted. "This place?"  
The others began to exhale and move to the water, kneeling down and chanting something which sounded like a prayer. Damon watched, still grimacing at the sight of the dirty water.  
"Plenty of swamps nearer to where you were." He mumbled.  
"Thank you." Marcus said to him and he raised an eyebrow. "You brought us home."  
"Whatever you say." He smirked in confusion. "Now can you take my leash off?"  
"Waken her." Marcus nodded towards their Sleeping Beauty.  
"Hold on there Pappa bear, we had a deal. My spell broken first, then I'll return your princess." Damon shook a naughty finger at him.  
"How can i trust you to fulfill your end of the bargain once I've helped you?" Marcus's eyes had taken on an intensity they never had before.  
It was enough to ruffle Damon's feathers a little and he found himself avoiding eye contact as he tried to stand taller and more threatening towards them.  
"Scouts honor." He smiled patronisingly before continuing. "My spell first, then the girl. The you can all go on your merry way and drink the whole swamp, bathe in it if you want to."  
The other travellers remained on their knees on the bank awaiting some kind of instruction from Marcus. What were they waiting for? He returned his attention back to Marcus and held his ground. He could see that they were in a stalemate.  
"Come on pappabear. Wouldn't want your grandkid to sleep forever would you? I gotta tell you, I have no idea what's happening inside while she's compelled to sleep. You see, I usually just kill them - pregnant or not."   
Damon chuckled evilly, hoping to tip things in his favour with the threat of miscarriage and Marcus's expression changed to one of absolute horror and surprise. Damon frowned in disbelief.  
"You didn't know?" He smirked and Marcus looked to the girl and moved to her, leaning down to touch her stomach.  
The others sat back and watched closely. So none of them had known? Their magic really wasn't the same as Bonnie's. She'd have known by brushing into someone that they were pregnant and these people lived with the girl - they were her family.  
"Andrea!?" Marcus shouted angrily and the woman who'd attended to Damon's bullet through the head, rushed to him.  
"I wasn't sure. I suspected but she denied it." The woman rambled apologetically and Marcus put his face in his hands.  
"Who?!" He roared and stood up, marching over the rest of the group.  
The men all stood nervously, shaking their heads and denying responsibility for fatherhood. Damon studied them.  
"Which one of you?!" Marcus grabbed a few.  
After much heated arguing and finger pointing, no one had accepted the pregnancy as their doing and Damon exhaled in boredom.  
"As much as I enjoy a bit of drama, I have a spell that needs ending. Let's get on with this and I can wake her up so you can ask her yourself." He huffed.  
Marcus took a few deep breaths and reined himself in, becoming the pillar of their community once more and not an enraged father. He marched up to Damon and grabbed a hold of him.  
"You will fulfill your end of this deal or I will find these relatives you seem to care so much about protecting and I will end them. Do you understand?" He threatened and Damon stared at him blankly.  
"Let's just do that damn ed spell already." Damon sighed, feeling fatigued.  
He was ready for all of this to be over. He needed to get back to Klaus and make sure he wasn't damaging Stefan's body.  
Marcus search his eyes for a moment and then nodded, stepping back as Andrea approached him and handed him a small velvet pouch. Damon scrutinised it as Marcus took it to the water edge and dipped it into the water, not revealing the contents to the air.  
"What is that?" Damon asked, crossing his arms.  
"The proof of our origin." Marcus said simply and the contents of the bag began to glow.  
Everyone stood to attention as a beam of light shone from the pouch, out towards a large boulder perched at the other side of the swamp. Marcus broke into a smile of relief and excitement and Damon tilted his head, watching as they all gathered around Marcus to look towards the rock.  
"On this ground some thousand years ago, our clan was divided. Now we will return our power to it's natural source and rejoin our peoples." He said, sounding biblical.  
Damon smirked as he wondered how long Marcus had been preparing his epic speech.  
They all followed the beam of light around the swamp to the other side and Damon sat down feeling weak. He zoned in his vampire eyes to see a small piece of stone being removed from the velvet pouch. It kinda looked like...could it be? He zeroed in on it again, using his full wolf eyes and could see slight indications of a marking on the piece. It looked like the piece of stone that Jeremy and Matt had collected from the site where the coven had been slaughtered. If these were two parts of the rock, then it meant that this was where grandma had been killed, according to Bonnie anyway.   
Grandma said that Klaus had killed her though. Hadn't she? By all accounts Klaus would have been a young human - barely a man, when she was supposed to have died. Grandma's spell was supposed to have happened here too? There was something missing from this puzzle piece.  
Marcus fit the peice of stone to the rock and Damon watched, expecting some sci-fi effect to happen, but the beam of light simply faded. Damon huffed under his breath. That was it? It wasn't going to be absorbed into the rock or something? That was a bit...disappointing.  
Marcus reclaimed the stone piece oncemoreand they all began to hug each other and rejoice. Damon sat back and leaned on his hands as he waited. Marcus walked back to him slowly, looking slightly more menacing than before. The electrical scent in the air seemed to charge as he approached and Damon felt the hairs on his arms stand.  
"Done with the show?" He asked. "What the hell was all that about?"  
"This stone proves that we are in the right place." Marcus said and knelt down to face him. "Are you ready?"  
"Let's get the show on the road." Damon nodded.  
"This is going to hurt." Marcus said as he stabbed the piece of stone into Damon's hand.  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
"Thomas, Thomas look at me! Take my hand ok? Feel my hand in yours. I'm real. I'm here. Touch me!" Stefan demanded of the man currently screaming, trying to throw his metal bed frame at one of the nurses.  
"Get away!!! Ghost! Why do you follow me?!!!" The man screamed again.  
"Dr Salvatore?" The nurse said nervously, offering a needle to him.  
"No." Stefan refused.  
He was done with trying to drug men out of their mania. It didn't help, it just kept them sedated and what they needed was to put their brain back together again. They needed reality not darkness.  
"Thomas, put the bed down and let's talk. I am alive. I am not ghost." He tried to sound calm and convincing and the man panted wildly, sizing him up.  
"I saw you! I saw you die! I saw everyone die!! So many..." The man wept in fear and began to soil himself.  
The nurse ran to get some aid and Stefan took a deep breath.  
"I was there, but I didn't die. I got out. I was saved Thomas. Just like you."  
"No, no...they all say they're still alive but they want to steal my body. They are here with the devil!" The man ranted.  
"Does a ghost bleed Thomas?" Stefan asked and the man looked at him, registering his words. "Does a ghost bleed?"  
"No." Thomas shook his heard fiercely and Stefan withdrew a small scapel from his pocket and cut a small line in his hand, showing it to him.  
The blood trickled into the centre of his palm and he winced a little, but the rampaging man lowered the bed to the floor, staring at him as though he was the only thing in the universe. Stefan felt a drip of blood fall to the floor and he placed a hankerchief to his palm, squeezing it and placing it into his pocket as he heard nurses come in behind him.  
The man opened his mouth to speak but couldn't and Stefan gave him a knowing nod.  
"I'm real and I am going to help you Thomas. Do you trust me?" He asked, holding the nurses back as they held a straightjacket in their arms.  
"Doctor?" The man whispered, beginning to shake now that his adrenaline was wearing off.  
Stefan nodded.  
"I'm going to get rid of the ghosts Thomas. We'll do it together."  
The man began to weep and collapsed onto the floor.  
"Doctor help me! I don't know how to tell who's real anymore. They're always around me, always calling me!"  
"I know." Stefan approached him slowly and knelt down to his height. "I know. You have to trust me Thomas, trust your nurses. They are here to help you go home to your family."  
"My family." The man whispered and reached out and touched Stefan's shoulders, convincing himself of the truth in Stefan's words.   
"I want to go home!" The man wept desperately.  
"You will." Stefan rubbed the man's arm gently.  
"Dr Salvatore?"   
Stefan looked back at one of the nurses. She held a letter in her hand. He gave a nod, returning his attention back to Thomas.  
"Thomas, I have some things to do until we begin our next session ok? I want you to let the nurses bathe and dress you. Don't hurt any of them or I will be unhappy."  
The man nodded and released him. Stefan stood up.  
"On your feet soldier." He said gently and the man stood up and saluted him in a trained fashion.  
"I will be back."  
"Yes sir." He answered.  
Stefan backed away a few steps, making sure there would be no other outbursts, before he turned around and followed one of the nurses back to his office.  
"You always know what to do. How do you do it?" The young, meek nurse enquired, looking up at him through her fair, blonde eyelashes.  
"I've been where he is. It's impossible to understand madness unless you've seen it for yourself." He said and gave a tight smile. "Who has written to me?"  
"It's your father sir." She advised and handed him the letter that had arrived.  
He took it from her, reaching his office door and nodding at her in thanks. He set it down and washed his hands, looking at his face in the mirror. He liked to think he was making a difference here, but truth was, there was so much more to the damaged mind of a man than he fully understood. He needed help here, someone who understood the brain and it's functions.  
He'd been reading about progress of this nature being made in a military hospital in Vienna, however he'd need to visit the facility to be able to find out more. He felt as though talking would help to wade through all of the dilusions and mania his patients were experiencing, but sometimes he was unsure if he made it worse or better. The hospital board wanted results, figures and data. He'd discovered through his last few years here though, that recovery time from war madness didn't always match up to the kind of timeline the hospital funders considered as being note worthy or of financial benefit.  
He shook his head and dried his hands.   
He turned back to his desk and sat down, preparing a dressing for his hand, pouring some alcohol on it first and dabbing it whilst he grimaced. It had been the only thing he could think of to stop the man from injuring himself and the rest of them. He should probably ensure that he never took such a drastic measure again. He was sure that it would be frowned upon. The other doctors here had no idea how convincing delusions were though. They had no conception of just how real things seemed to a damaged mind, as real as the flesh and blood people around here.  
Once his hand was cleaned and seen to, he reached over and unfolded the telegram. It was a big day in the Salvatore residence today. His son Thomas was ten - a man today. He felt grieved he couldn't be there, but he had leave to go to them tomorrow so he knew his headstrong and outspoken boy would be satisfied with that. Thomas had grown into such a confident fellow. With Guiseppe now aging more noticeably, Thomas had taken some of the reins from his grandfather and was helping to run some of the household.  
Peter was now 6 and still very much the baby of the house. He scarcely left the security of his mother's skirts. Vida was also coming in leaps and bounds quite literally. She had become an accomplished rider, competing with girls twice her age. Stefan had given his permission for her to buy a new horse come her 14th birthday next month.  
He smiled as he opened the letter. His heart warming at the thought of being with them tomorrow. He hated having to work so far way - it would take 5 hours on horseback or 6 by carriage to get back to them, but these days that wasn't so far. Still, it might as well have been a thousand miles for all he missed them. Still, his work here was important.  
"I hope all finds you well my son. Your presence is missed here. We look forward to your arrival tomorrow. I wrote to you to advise that we have some guests staying with us, who are eager to meet your accquaintance - a Miss Katherine Pierce and her hand maiden. Miss Pierce has recently been orphaned and as a Christian I couldn't turn the young lady away in all good conscience. I trust that you agree on this matter. The young lady has become fond of the children and is teaching Vida the social etiquette observed by the ladies in Atlanta. Vida is very taken with her.  
For your arrival tomorrow, we are having a feast, so please ensure your attire is appropriate.  
Until tomorrow my son,  
Your loving father,

Guiseppe Salvatore"  
Stefan chuckled, shaking his head. Even in a letter his father could sound so obtuse, still things were better between them these days. The fact that Stefan was working away might have helped. Seperation sometimes mended the cracks in a relationship, it gave perspective.  
He re-read the letter again. Guests? That was unusual for Giuseppe. Still, it wasn't unheard of that a carriage carrying people travelling further south should need assistance and lodgings on a long journey. He was glad that Vida had someone nearer to her age to talk to. There was only so much a girl could share with her mother after all. Elizabeth and he now merely kept up appearances. There was no real love their, only small affection and manners.  
It was his children he was drawn back for anyway.  
The rest of his day was difficult and challenging. When he fell into his bed at the end of the night, he felt exhausted and needed to bathe. He closed his eyes and dreamt of being at home, sitting out on the lawn with Peter in his lap.  
He awoke early with a start. He sat up, feeling uneasy and clutched at his chest. His heart as hammering and he took a few deep breaths. He couldn't recall any nightmares and yet he felt charged and shaky. He looked to his window and stood up, pacing across the cold wooden floor boards until he could look out. It was stormy otutside and he looked up at the sky, leaning against the glass to do so. A bolt of lightning flashed and he grumbled. A storm wasn't an ideal travelling companion. He went back to his bed and looked at his clock.  
It was 5 a.m. He climbed back under his blankets and sighed. He would have to get up in an hour and leave immediately to get back home. It felt like the middle of the night though. He turned onto his side frowning. Storm or no storm, he was going home tomorrow!  
The rain continued, making the roads muddy and he struggled to keep the horses moving. His driver had advised against travelling and he had had to pay his three times as much to agree to continue. He sat back and tried to sleep as the carriage struggled through the weather. It felt like an age passed before he finally began to recognise the landscape. 8 hours had passed before he saw the Salvatore Mansion and he sighed in relief, rubbing his back and thighs and trying to get some life back into them again.  
He loathed a long carriage journey.  
The driver pulled up inside the grounds and Stefan climbed out, his legs feeling like jelly. Some servants came to assist and the driver was lead away to lodgings for the evening considering the impossibility of making it back in this weather. The sky had grown dark and gloomy and it gave Stefan the shivers. By the time he enetered the foyer of his home, he was soaked through.  
Giuseppe motioned him into a cloakroom and tried to make him look more presentable.  
"You have missed the meal." He sighed, annoyed and Stefan removed his hat and gloves, saying nothing in response.  
"I am here in one piece. Thank you for asking father." He said after another sigh from Giuseppe.  
"The new mayor and sheriff are here. They've been waiting to have a brandy with you." Guiseppe straightened his collar and brushed down his shoulders.  
Stefan nodded and patted his face dry with his handkerchief.  
"How are things at the hospital?" Giuseppe tried to make small talk and Stefan gave a small smile at his attempts to show interest.  
"Good. Money is scarce but I think we are making progress."  
"Good. That's excellent." Giuseppe smiled awkwardly and they stood, unsure what to say next.  
"Are you well father?"   
"Very. You?"  
"Yes."   
"Ok then." Giuseppe smiled and guided him back out of the cloakroom, towards the dining room.  
His stomach rumbled fiercely, having only had some sandwiches on his journey hours ago. He knew the kitchens would still be full of leftovers though, so he could attend to himself soon enough. Right now he had to play his part. Although he'd always hated having to do this, as a man of independant means now and running a hospital ward desperately in need of funding, he knew the value of keeping up appearances. If he could convince some influential people here to help donate money to te hopsital, then he may be able to convince the board to give him more time and equipment.  
He had some brandy and smoked some cigars with the gentleman present, discussing his plans. Everything he seemed to be doing had drawn quite an audience in Mystic Falls. People were fascinated by his progress. Although he was bound by confidentiality, he did give some examples of some of the episodes he had dealt with. He saw nothing of the new guest residing here.  
When he finally left the men playing cards in the study and went down to the kitchens to eat, he was accosted by Vida and Thomas, whom had snuck down from their rooms to greet him.  
He swung them both around, kissing their faces and marvelling at how much they had both grown in his absence.  
Thomas chatted away about everything he was learning about the family business, impressing Stefan with his knowledge and the fact that Giuseppe was giving him responsibilities. Vida talked much about Katherine and about her horses in the stables. She had already picked a new horse and was going to make an offer next month. He always grew a little nervous at the thought she would need a larger horse now, but he hid it well, knowing she could handle herself.  
He ate as much as he could hold and then gathered them both in his arms, carrying them back up to their bedrooms. Peter was fast asleep in Thomas's room as he set him down on his feet again. He kissed both of their heads and wished Thomas good night. He missed this, spending this kind of time with them. Peter would be so lonely in this room when Thomas was moved to his own section of the house. Once boys reached the age of 13, they were removed from the main house. That was the way here.  
Vida had settled herself for the night and so he returned to the study to sit late into the evening with the last of the guests.  
Morning came and the storm still raged. He awoke to branches beating against his window and he climbed out of bed and looked out. His room was nearest the stables and he could see quite far across their land normally. Today he could barely see past the graveyard.  
He narrowed his eyes as he saw what appeared to be a woman, struggling to walk away from the land. Who was that? Where was she going? She was heading towards the stables. It wasn't a servant, her clothing was too colourful.  
He grabbed his clothing, dressing quickly and left the room in search of her. It must be his young guest. She should know better than to be outside in this weather. She could be hurt or worse, catch the cold or a fever.  
He moved through the kitchens, finding it oddly emoty of life and headed out the back door. He looked out towards the stables, but saw no one. Had he imagined it? He ran out towards the wooden structure, opening the door and stepping inside. The horses were uptight and restless.  
"Hello? Miss Katherine?" He called out, but saw no one. "A young lady shouldn't be out in this weather. Please come back inside."  
He hated to sound patronising but he didn't know this girl. He didn't even know how old she was. She may have no real sense of danger yet. Youth brought so little awareness.  
He moved around, patting the horses snouts gently and trying to calm them when the oil lamp above him swung towards his head. He caught it, missing an collision and set it straight again. He must have left the stable door open as he could feel the wind moving behind him. He turned around to go back and close it, when he felt a strong pair of hands grab him and pull him backwards into an empty stall.  
He fell onto the hay, breathing hard and looking up into a pair of beautiful brown eyes.  
"You will not make a sound or fight." A young voice said to him and he blinked, feeling his whole body relax. "You will not remember what happens here."  
He repeated her words back to her, staring u at her and feeling aroused. Her face was so lovely, angelic. She leaned her face down to his and he opened his lips to kiss her, when she moved into his neck and bite him. He felt his body arch in pain, but the pain was gone almost as soon as it had come and he let out a breathy moan as he felt his toes curl. He could feel her swallow, hear her breathe against his skin but everything else was intense pleasure.  
He yielded to her mouth wholeheartedly, feeling waves of sensation filted through his body, into his limbs, into his manhood. He grew hard and began to whisper encouragement to her.  
"Yes, oh yes, please...don't stop. Uh..." he whispered, unashamed and so aroused he feared he may soil his trousers if his manhood grew any more stimulated.  
Just as he thought he may pass out with pleasure, she removed her teeth from his neck and rose up to look down at him. He panted, his eyes closing as he tried to regain control over his body. She whispered softly to him, humming gently and stroking the hair from his forehead.  
"What a present you are for me. I shall enjoy taking you to my bed." She said seductively.  
He tried to speak but couldn't and she lay her finger against his lips. He opened his eyes.  
"Hush Dr Salvatore. You must drink and forget this happened." She bit into her own wrist and placed it to his lips.  
He tried to move out of thr wy of the blood trickling but she cooed at him and he opened his mouth. Her blood didn't taste like blood at all. It was like fire. His eyes widened as he swallowed and he felt his strength return almost immediately. She retireved her wrist and blotted it with a silken handkerchief.   
She stood up and looked down at him, at his erection still evident and she smiled wickedly.  
"Were you not to be missed at this hour I would have you, however i fear you father will be looking for you."  
He stood up, embarrassed at such a display of arousal.  
"Go and remember nothing except your arousal for me."  
He nodded, frowning as he walked out of the stable and closed the door again. The coldness of the rain brought him back to earth and he looked around, wondering why he was here. Then he remembered. The young lady. He turned around and went back inside calling out for her just as he had done before, but this time with no memory of it and found nothing.  
He ventured back into the house and sat down at the table as breakfast was being served. He felt more famished than he'd felt in years.  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Klaus had threatened, he had tortured - enough to cause pain without damaging Stefan's body too much and now he was exhausted and angry. Grandma would give nothing more away, despite compulsion. Clearly she had somehow managed to injest vervain or she had a spell cloaking some of her mind. He seemed to be able to compel her somewhat but not completely.  
She had fallen into a stupour of exhaustion. Stefan's body could only be pushed so far and he knew that. He'd have to allow her to rest. What he had gotten out of her was that she had help from people on this side, travellers. As far as he was aware, the travellers using Damon were the only ones in the area, so what was their plan? Damon had struck a deal with them to break grandma's spell. Did they actually intent to keep that agreement? If their magic was running out and they needed source as a result, then why were they wasting so much of their magic on helping Eve?  
Was it her presence here that was draining them? If so, did they realise that that was what was happening? It didn't add up. Damon believed them not to have known about grandma at all - about her presence here and now.  
What was clear, was that they knew about him. They feared him. Perhaps he could use that and find out exactly what was going on. How could Eve ever expect to have killed him with this terrible plan? Surely she would have expected that he would find her, or that one of the mates would turn her in or betray her and he would come and be able to compel and kill her. Using Stefan's body to thwart him killing it may have been a smart calculated move but it wasn't enough to have made her plan work. She seemed smart enough to have known that.  
His cell wrang and he answered, pressing it to his ear.  
"Not now love." He sighed, tiredly into the earpiece and Elizabeth began to shout at him.  
"Do you have Damon?" She asked.  
"No, his little travellers have him by now I wager."  
"Where's Eve?"  
"With me." He answered carefully,not wanting to give anything away.  
For all he knew she could be being coerced.  
"Nick, Bonnie has a plan to get Stefan back. We need to keep his body alive."  
"Has she now?" He said in a monotone voice.  
"Tell me you haven't killed her." She said worriedly.  
"Not yet."  
"Where are you? We're coming to you."  
"You might want to hold back on that one love. I have no idea what the stakes are."  
"What do you mean? You sound strange. Please Nick where are you?"  
He blinked at the sound of concern in her voice, but oddly he couldn't summon any response to it. He felt too tired.  
"Nick? Nick?" She asked and he found himself relaxing back into his chair feeling a little bored by all of it now. "Nick? Something's wrong with him...something's off."  
He heard her speak to someone in the background and he dropped the phone on the floor, staring at it nonchalently.  
"Klaus?" Bonnie's voice. "Klaus I'm warning you not to do anything until we get to you. You don't know what's going on! Are you listening?"  
He gave a small smir and lay his head back against the chair, closing his eyes sleepily. Strange how little he seemed to care about everything all of a sudden. Strange how, despite the sounds of chains breaking and Eve rousing from the bed beside him, didn't cause any concern whatsoever. What did he care about anything anyways?  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Stefan awoke in the stables and grunted, rubbing at his neck. What the hell was he doing in here? He stood up and grabbed his trousers, realising they were undone. He quickly buttoned himself up, looking around for any sign of the servants or guests. What the hell? His children came in here and fed the horses. What the hell was he thinking coming in here and falling asleep in this state? How had he gotten into this state at all? He walked clumsily out into the main section, feeling a little faint. The horses stared at him, chewing on their hay. Something about their stares seemed accusatory though and he found he couldn't take the embarrassment. He turned and left, marching back towards the house.  
He would be leaving in a few hours and he needed to attend to things. He couldn't believe he's fallen asleep and lost time with the children.  
He entered the kitchens, smelling some broth on the stove and his mouth watered. He'd grown such an appetite since he'd come back here and it was odd. He must be eating at least twice as much as normal. He'd have to get used to eating less tomorrow. They didn't have the luxury of such an abundance of food at the hospital.  
He dressed for breakfast and seated himself next to Miss Katherine. He'd finally met the young woman last night at dinner and found her charming and fascinating. Despite her youth, her father had been a doctor and she had learned alot about medicine from him.   
Giuseppe, oddly, seemed a little rude to her at times - he remained a gentleman of course, as manner dictated but that seemed to be all. Stefan had noted it in particular as interesting. Time would have been, where he wouldn't have been surprised at Giuseppe attempting to convince Stefan to take her as a mistress, taking her back to live with him at the hospital in secret. She would make a good wife to a doctor.  
Yet Giuseppe made no such comments.  
Flora arrived and set a bowl of porridge down to him first of all, showing that he was the man of the house and he smiled fondly at her in thanks. He took a spoonful and detected a strange taste within it. He couldn't name it all all and it didn't seem like something that would compliment his porridge. Of course being a man of manners, he ate on and the others began to eat also.  
The strange taste wasn't unpleasant, just foreign. He ate it all and excused himself to the kitchens. Flora was busy cooking for their meals later when he came in.  
"Flora? What did you add to my porridge today?" He asked, coming up beside her.  
She jumped startled and smiled at.  
"Just a herb I heard was good for your health. Going back to all of that illness and disease puts your health at risk Master." She smiled and he gave a small nod of acceptance. "Was it not to your liking sir?"  
He considered telling her that it had tasted unpleasant, but he couldn't. The look in her face was one of honest caring and concern and he couldn't make her feel bad. He shook his head and kissed her cheek, returning to the parlour.  
He spent his last few hours with the children, calming Peter who cried and clung to him.  
"I shall be back before you know it." He kissed his blonde head and held him comfortingly.  
Once Peter had settled, he left them to speak to Giuseppe. He wanted to ensure that Giuseppe went with Vida when picking that new horse. If anything he trusted that his father would keep her safe with her purchase and choice. He approached the door to his father's study when he heard his voice further down the hall, in his bedroom instead. He turned around and headed there.  
Giuseppe was having a conversation with someone and he was being discete about it, secretive even. Stefan slowed his footsteps and crept, curiosity taking over his senses.  
"Why? Why must he bring these people into this place?" Giuseppe was asking bitterly.  
Stefan frowned and stopped within earshot.  
"Because his life followed that pattern. We can guide him but he still controls the elements here, whether he remembers them or not."  
It was Flora's voice. What were they talking about?  
"What if it plays out like it did before? That woman..."  
"You cannot control everything Giuseppe. If it does happen again, then we shall have to let it. We can't interfere with his soul."  
"But isn't that what we've been doing here? What will all of this have been for if she turns him into a vampire again? If I have to kill him again?"  
Stefan felt his whole body seize.   
"I will not lose my son again, not to his brother, not to her, not to anyone. He has to cross over pure." Giuseppe sounded depserate and enraged all at the same time.  
Stefan's blood ran cold. Images of the man Damon coming back to him from years before - everything that happened that he'd tried so hard to convince himself had been the war madness. What was happening? His heart began to pound in his ears.  
"His other life ended so prematurely, we must expect that this will come to an end soon also. Even though he doesn't consciously construct this world around him, he will subconsciously have a hand in it's expiry."  
"But he's not ready Flora. He's still a young man."  
"But not a young soul Giuseppe. We have to accept the fact that his connection to Damon pulls at him from across the veil. We have to allow him to make the decisions that end his life. If we interfere, we may still lose him. You must trust in him."  
Stefan couldn't listen to anymore. He retreated as quietly as he could, feeling his chest tighten to such an extent that he rushed to his bedroom and vomited into his bedpan. The room seemed to spin and he held onto the bed legs as he lowered his head to the cold floor beneath him.   
This was a dream or a joke or a nightmare - the result of the strange tasting herbs in his food this morning? Perhaps they were poisonous and he was hallucinating. He unbuttoned his collar and tried to breathe, feeling like he was going to suffocate.  
Deep breaths, deep breaths, feel the floor beneath you, feel each of your fingers, feel the blankets draping next to you...  
He chanted in his head all of the sensory stimulations that he used with his patients to try and ground them, but it didn't seem to be helping. The wind blew a gale outside his window, but he couldn't pay it any heed as he began to hyperventilate.  
My name is Stefan Salvatore. My children are called Vida, Thomas, Peter...Vida loves horses, she rides, Thomas is into mathematics, Peter is...he is always afraid, always afraid...no, no, no...  
He shook his head and dug his nails into the wooden floor. He felt a gentle hand on his back and he cried out in surprise and crawled across to the other side of the room. It was Miss Katherine - how had she gotten into his room? What was she doing here?  
"Hush, it's ok. I won't hurt you Stefan." She soothed and he frowned at her.  
"What are you doing in here?" He sounded angry as he spoke.  
Who did this girl think she was, coming in here into a gentleman's room without a chaperone? It was outragious!  
"Leave immediately!" He said and she giggled, twirling her hair.  
"Oh I don't think so do you?" She moved around his room, touching all of the furniture as she moved almost predatorily.  
She seemed as this moment, not like a young girl of her years, but of a spider - a black widow, dangerous and calculating. It gave him a chill of fear. She seemed to sense his discomfort and smiled wider.  
"I think that you're wife is ailing. I think she might die in her sleep tonight."  
"What?" He moved continually away from her, still on his knees like a fool.  
"And once she's gone, you'll need a new lady of the house. That'll be me Stefan. I'll be your wife and all of your land and wealth will belong to me."  
He frowned at her in disbelief. She was crazy.  
"Come here. I want you." She opened her eyes widely at him and he stared at her almost entranced. "You shall not be going back to that hospital. I need your stronghold here."  
He rose onto his feet unsteadily, still staring at her. He felt a little compelled to do as she asked and he walked slowly over to her. What power did this girl have over him? What witchcraft?  
She lay on his bed and began to undo her clothing. He shook his head horrified and she seemed to blur out of focus as he felt himself pulled on top of her. He struggled to move when she caught his face in her small hands, her strength undeniably triplefold what his was. He froze absolutely terrified.  
"Make love to me." She widened her eyes again and he felt his manhood respond.  
She pulled him down to kiss her, sliding her other hand down to stroke over his hardened flesh. He kissed her, waiting for his moment to pin her down and slap her, when she moved into his neck and bit him. He tried to cry out but she fastened her hand over his mouth and he melted into her. That feeling, that familiar feeling of pleasure. How had he forgotten it? It washed over him, making him sink into her tiny body and rutt against her. It was such peace and yet wild and raw pleasure at the same time.  
He heard himself calling her name and whispering encouragement and she pulled her mouth away and giggled again. He lay his face into her bosom, feeling groggy when she held him, stroking his hair and beginning to whisper in his ear.  
"Once I've killed your father and children, it will just be us and we can make love on every surface. No one will bother us anymore." She spoke giddy with excitement.  
He opened his eyes despite the weakness and confusion and pulled away from her abruptly, falling from the bed in a clatter. She immediately sat up confused and spoke his name and that was when he saw the blood on her mouth. He cried out in fear and rushed to his closet, pulling out his old Lindsay musket he had stored there. He had no idea if it was even loaded. It had been in there so long, but he intended to use it on this demon. He hoped to god it would still shoot.  
"Stay back demon woman!" He warned, aiming it and holding it firmly into his right side as he'd been taught.  
"Put that down Stefan. You don't want to hurt me." She cooed at him as though he were a child.   
She was the child - barely eighteen years old! Who did she think she was talking to a man like this? She must be truly mad. She seemed perplexed by his behaviour and suddenly Giuseppes' words came back to him.  
"What will all of this have been for if she turns him into a vampire again?"   
That what she was - a vampire! A horrible blood sucking monster from a fairytale. Was that what was happening here? He didn't understand. He felt bile rise in his mouth and he held his gaze on her.  
Suddenly she moved to him so fast he barely saw her until she was right infront of him, reaching for his musket. He aimed and fired at her without haste and she cried out, landing a foot away - her chest bleeding profusely. Thank god the gun was loaded. He only had one more shot in this. She was too fast, much too fast to allow him time to prepare another round. He had no idea where his ammunition was anyway, if he even had any here still. When he'd been ill, they removed anything he might hurt himself with - this had been his one secret.   
He shook, still holding his gun when she rose again snarling at him with the face of a monster. He panicked, aimed and fired again into her chest. He didn't know what she was but she was not human. She wanted to kill his babies, his precious babies. The second shot made a hole through her chest causing her chest cavity to pop and cover the wall and floor behind her. There was no coming back from that! He'd seen men killed with only one shot, never mind three.  
The cracking sound from the shots made his ears ring in a familiar way, bringing back memories he'd tried to forget and he crumpled onto his knees. He closed his eyes, hearing the sounds of war around him even though he knew he couldn't be there. He couldn't be! He was home, he was safe, the war was over, it was over!!!  
"God! Save me please!"   
He cried out, dropping the gun and putting his hands over his ears trying to block out the sounds of men screaming for help, crying for their mother's, cursing god...  
There is no god if he can permit a demon to live. If he can allow such horror! No, no, there's nothing, nothing but death and pain and fire!  
"Son!"  
He heard Giuseppe's voice laced with concern as several servants and Giuseppe burst through his door. They all gasped at the scene and orders were called for Dr Lockwood. Why? Why were they calling for Dr Lockwood? She was dead. There was nothing to be done now.  
"Stefan, look at me son." Giuseppe called to him, approaching slowly.  
"Father I'm dying." He cried and Giuseppe rushed to him, holding him to him fiercely and trying to check his body for wounds.  
"I don't believe in god anymore. I don't believe. I'm dying." He ranted and Giuseppe leaned down and lifted him as though he were a small child.  
He struggled under his weight, now that his years were advanced, but he carried Stefan out of the room as everything Stefan thought he knew collapsed.


	44. Chapter 44

Chapter 44 TH

“How do we find Klaus?” Elizabeth looked to them all, as they packed some supplies in Ian’s lodge.  
“Blood. His blood. He gave it to us in exchange for Toby.” Nisha suggested and tried to ignore the way Beth ground her teeth at the memory.  
“I can use that.” Bonnie nodded and spread a map out before her on the table.  
Nisha left to retrieve it from Constance in the next lodge. They waited, Nathan pacing.  
“He sounded off how?” He asked Beth, opting to speak rather than channel to help instil trust between them all.  
“His voice was…devoid of emotion. He sounded like a robot.” She struggled to describe it.  
She channelled the memory to him and he nodded thoughtfully.  
“Spell?” He suggested and she shrugged.  
Nisha arrived with the vile of Klaus’s blood and handed it to Bonnie. Bonnie began to chant and poured it onto the map. They all watched in amazement as the blood moved to a spot and rested there.  
“There.” She pointed. “You can’t feel him from here though, yeah?” She looked to Beth and Nathan.  
“Yeah, there’s nothing.” He said and Beth also shook her head.  
“He’s too far away from here, but when we get closer to this spot, try and search for him. Channel. We have a lot of ground to cover still.” She instructed and they nodded.  
“What do we do once we find him?” Nisha asked, as Bonnie took a screenshot of the map and tucked her phone in her jeans.  
“Wherever Klaus is, Eve will be. She wants him dead so as long as we get to him, we find her. Then we can try and incapacitate her long enough to keep her down.”  
“How will you do the spirit plan thingy?” Nathan asked.  
“By taking Vida with me. She’s connected to Stefan’s soul.”  
“You want to take her, have her see..?” Nisha began to argue, looking over to the room where the babies were sleeping soundly.  
“We don’t have a choice. I can’t summon this Flora spirit, but we know she will visit Vida. When she does, I’ll jump through the portal and bring Stefan back through.”  
“There’s so much that can go wrong here.” Nathan argued, shaking his head. “I don’t like this Bonnie.”  
“If you have any better ideas I’m open.” She said and he sighed and looked to his feet. “If I can bring Stefan back through he’ll be sucked back into his body – the rightful owner. It’ll push grandma back to where she climbed in.”  
“Then what? We couldn’t get her out before.” Nathan pointed out. “Won’t she just start eating his soul again?”  
“That’s where Damon’s travellers will come in handy.” Bonnie said.  
“How? We don’t know their intentions. We don’t even know if Damon is still alive. Why would they help us?” Nisha asked.  
“Because if they don’t they’ll make an enemy out of Klaus and end up with someone more powerful and dangerous than he is.”   
“Plus bat shit crazy.” Nathan nodded at the logic. “Surely they can’t risk her surviving all of this if Klaus dies either.”  
Bonnie looked to Beth pointedly.   
“We need to know that Klaus is on our side Beth. The traveller’s may help us if they believe that he will leave them alone in exchange. They are by nature distrustful of others, especially witches. If all they see is me, then they’ll retaliate to protect themselves and could just disappear and we need their help to her out of Stefan’s mind for good. I can’t do it on my own, but with their help maybe.”  
Beth ran her fingers through her hair and paced.  
“What about whoever else is helping grandma?” Nathan reminded and Bonnie nodded thoughtfully. “You said she couldn’t be here without externally help from witches.”  
“She used the fact that Stefan was a Halfling to get into his body but she has strength to keep her in there – it has to be coming from somewhere.” Bonnie nodded.   
“Another coven?” Nathan asked and Bonnie shook her head, her skin itching slightly. “What?”  
He touched her arm, probing her thoughts verbally and she sighed.  
“I don’t know. I just have a feeling about the other force. I don’t think it is witches.”  
“What makes you say that?” Beth asked, packing her belongings into her backpack as they all looked at the time.  
Bonnie shrugged, struggling to explain her gut feeling. Something had always bothered her about this. She could believe that witches had been involved in aiding grandma’s first spell, but the potential causalities of innocents that could happen as a result of allowing grandma’s plan this time round were too vast. It went against nature to help a supernatural creature come back into a body that she may be able to retain. The last spell had its loopholes too, but she’d been under no illusions to the fact that if grandma had successfully come back to this plane and killed Klaus with the energy from the spell, her time here would have been limited. The witches would have been willing to send a spirit back to end Klaus and even to extinguish the impossible children to protect the balance but they’d never have then allowed grandma to live on and become a disruption either. It would have been counter-productive. She’d thought on that a lot for the past few months. It brought her similar worries on the life expectancy of the impossible children too.  
They needed to speak to Damon’s travellers, figure out how the original spell had been done, why they needed Damon’s body. What was their agenda? There was so much they didn’t know now that they’d lost contact with him. They needed to find him.  
“Nathan, I need you to focus all of your energy on Damon. We need to know what he does. Beth you will search for Klaus.” She said resolutely and without any further explanation. “If we have to split up we will.”  
They both nodded, trusting her judgement.  
“We need Klaus and the traveller’s on our side.”  
They jumped into a couple of vehicles, following each other as they headed in the direction the map had indicated Klaus was. Nathan sat in the passenger side, trying to scan for Damon with all of his abilities, while Nisha drove. Bonnie led the way with Beth and Vida in the back of her car. Isabella and Ian had agreed, after some argument, that they would stay and protect Toby and the rest of the pack.  
Nisha looked over at Nathan occasionally. His silence was so unusual but she could see the level of concentration on his face. He was irritated that he couldn’t sense anything.  
“Relax.” She said softly and he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “He’s out there. He’s alive.”  
“He better be.” He mumbled.  
“We don’t really know what we are getting into here. I don’t like it.” She sighed and he nodded. “We don’t have much of a plan.”  
He nodded in agreement, feeling restless.  
“We have to trust Bonnie.” He mumbled, but even he felt uneasy.  
Bonnie’s method seemed a little knee-jerk. They didn’t have enough to go on and yet she was trying to construct a plan from the crumbs they did know. For all they knew, the travellers were done with Damon. He could be dead now. They could be gone. Klaus could be killing Stefan’s body, or dead himself. The travellers could have been involved from the beginning in helping grandma. That wouldn’t make sense though. Damon had made a deal, sought them out to help sever grandma’s blood tie to them. Why would they agree to do that if they were working with her? It wouldn’t make sense. Then again, maybe breaking the tie to the blood would have no immediate effect on her and therefore they would do it to make Damon believe that they were on his side?  
So much conjecture. What was happening? Why could he never figure anyone’s intentions out any more? Things used to be so simple.  
Nisha began to speak to him, running her theories past him, when he jolted in his seat and opened his eyes wide.  
“Nate?” She asked, looking at him.  
“Damon.” He mumbled. “He’s not far away.”  
“You feel him?” She asked excitedly and he nodded, concentrating but filled with relief.  
The connection was blurry though, odd, as though Damon was asleep or drugged. He could sense his mind but he couldn’t pull on the connection any more than that.  
“He’s alive, but he’s…I don’t know. I can’t channel to him or sense his thoughts.”  
“Lead the way.” She said and he nodded, pointing towards an off road as Nisha signalled to Bonnie by flashing her lights.  
They had agreed that if Damon and Klaus were separate, then they’d split up to find both and bring them all together. Bonnie flashed her rear lights in acknowledgement and continued on the road.  
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Damon watched the stone pierce the skin on the back of his hand but oddly…felt nothing. He looked down, watching the blood trickle across his skin. Marcus poised, ready for him to attack. He looked back to Marcus’s eyes blankly.  
They stared at one another for a few seconds until Marcus frowned, searching his eyes.  
“You’re not resisting.” He commented and Damon shrugged, feeling uninterested.  
What did it matter anyway?  
Marcus pulled the sharp edge of the stone out from his tissue and Andrea appeared by his side, watching Damon carefully out of the corner of her eye for danger and handed Marcus the bowl they’d been using to hold his blood inside. Marcus dropped the stone carefully into the bowl and the clink the stone made when it hit the metal walls of the bowl seemed to resonate like a Tibetan singing bowl, or like running a finger along the inside of a wine glass until it began to whine.  
Damon lay down on his back and closed his eyes.  
“Something’s not right here.” Marcus whispered to the woman. “His fight is gone.”  
“Perhaps he’s expiring now that his mate is gone, finally.” She advised and Damon cracked his eyes opened a little.  
“He’s not dead.” He said casually.  
“What?” The woman asked and he gave a shrug and yawned.  
“He’s been possessed by the original wolf, sent to some phantom ghost world.” He divulged, simply not caring what they knew anymore.  
“The original wolf is here? On this plane?” Marcus asked, sounding concerned and a little afraid.  
When Damon merely nodded, Marcus shook his by his shoulders until he opened his eyes again.  
“You’re under a spell.” Marcus surmised and tried to capture his face in his hands so he could look into his eyes.  
Damon allowed it, staring back at him blankly.  
“What are you feeling?” Marcus asked him.  
“Nothing.” He answered, his voice almost taking on a monotone quality and Andrea frowned and knelt nearer to his face too.  
“This is the wolf’s doing. It has to be.” She commented. “What is her plan?” She asked him, considering he seemed to be so forthcoming all of a sudden.  
“She’s here to kill Klaus.” He answered.  
“How?” Marcus asked and Damon shrugged.  
“She’s taken over your mate’s body?” She asked and he nodded and pushed Marcus’s hands away from his face.  
Both Andrea and Marcus stood up, looking to each other worriedly and Damon lay back down again.  
“How can she summon enough power to be here? He said the last spell failed.”  
“I have no idea. It would take tapping into a huge abundance and I’ve not seen that kind of power in a long time.”  
“Could she be using several sources?”  
“Perhaps.”  
“What should we do? Is she a threat to us?”  
“I wouldn’t underestimate her. After all, our tribe have partial responsibility for her death.”  
“Yes.” The woman agreed.  
“How did she die?” Damon asked, still lying down and appearing as though he was going to sleep.  
“The spell to bind her blood with the element so she could reproduce, created a finite timing for her life.” Marcus answered, looking down at him. “Such a powerful spell shortened her lifespan considerably, so every time she had a child with the element, it weakened her until her body failed.”  
“Every child took some of her life force with it until she died.” Andrea added.  
“She says Klaus killed her.” He turned onto his side, bringing his knees into his body.  
Marcus grew fearful of what the spell on Damon was. He appeared as though he was going to hibernate with the way his body was beginning to settle and he still had to undo the compulsion.  
“In her mind perhaps. She thought the only way to ensure there would be a being powerful enough to stop Klaus when he came into his full strength, was to create one through her own blood.”  
“Spells can grow more potent over time, like wine and so she realised she wouldn’t live to see her wolf progeny strong enough to take him on. She devised another way – to create your line of beings.”  
“Why not just let one of us kill him?” Damon smirked and Marcus felt his fear decrease a little, some of Damon’s spirit still remained it seemed.  
“Well, have any of you succeeded?” Andrea asked sarcastically, because of course answer was evident and he exhaled. “He’s too strong for one of you. Somehow she became obsessed with the idea of returning herself, using the energy and power of your bodies, but she knew she’d need a few generations worth of you, so she scattered her babies to ensure you’d thrive and reproduce, not falling prey to any of the same perils.”  
“Nathan.” Damon mumbled in a surprised tone and blinked rapidly, seemingly distracted and Marcus knelt down to him again. “The spell, finish it.”  
Damon looked to him, his eyes a little clearer.  
“Who’s Nathan?” Marcus queried and Damon blinked but said nothing. “Is he your mate?”  
“No.” Damon answered, but seemed to glaze over again. “Break it, before she comes.”  
“The wolf?” He asked and Damon nodded. “You can sense her?”  
Damon nodded again.  
“Make her weak.” Damon tried to growl but it seemed to fatigue him.  
“Release my daughter now.” Marcus said and Damon shook his head. “Then I won’t help you.”  
“Then she’ll kill you all too.” Damon replied, suddenly sitting up as though he’d heard a noise and looking into the forest.  
Marcus and Andrea looked to each other, deliberating.  
“Breaking your connection to her won’t weaken her. It’ll simply release all of you.” Marcus pointed out and Andrea nudged him.  
“She is inside the body of a mate. Won’t that have an effect?” She reminded and Marcus thought on that.  
“Only if it’s their energy she’s using to ground herself here.” Marcus said.  
“No.” Damon sighed, sitting up. “She can’t use us anymore – we are earthed now. Bonnie did a spell.”  
“A witch?”  
“Yeah.” Damon nodded. “She said she had travellers and witches.”  
Marcus placed his fingers to his lips and looked around at his small tribe. It was true that their peoples had been divided a long time ago and he knew there were others out there, but he hadn’t encountered any for a long time. Who knew whether they even upheld the same values anymore or would even recognise his tribe as their own? Why would they help this wolf back into the world? Killing the hybrid was a good motivation he supposed, but hardly worth the risk. The hybrid was powerful and crafty and could hunt all of them down. Besides, the hybrid had never shown much interest in the travellers, so why make an enemy of him?  
“If she’s working with other travellers then they must be connecting to the source Marcus.” Andrea pointed out. “That level of power only exists here.”  
He nodded, realising she was right. The others must be nearby and tapping into the collective energy. They could reach out to them. Then again, what would their response be? They obviously had a reason for working with the wolf, if indeed that was what was happening.  
“Call on them.” He said and nodded to her.  
Damon watched her in interest as she stood up, removing a bag from her shoulder and retrieving a wooden object from it with a rope attached. He raised his eyebrows, fighting the urge to sleep.  
“What’s that?” He asked.  
“A ‘Brummer’ - for communication.” She advised, letting the wood drop to the ground dangled by the rope.  
“What?” He snorted, laying down again with a hint of finality to his movement.  
“We can communicate in times of danger this way, to call for aid. If these travellers are of our clan, they’ll understand the message.” She looked to Marcus nervously for a second and then began to spin the rope up above her head until the wood started to make some strange noises.  
Damon watched in awe, noticing the small holes carved into the wood, which were making the sounds as the air channelled through them. How clever.   
“Now we wait and hope they’re on our side.” Marcus said and Damon didn’t miss the inflection in his tone which conveyed that he was talking about his tribe only and not Damon.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Giuseppe lay Stefan down on his own bed as Flora came to his side and tried to comfort him. He was shaking but seemed calm, too calm.  
“Master Stefan, drink this. It’ll help.” She advised, pressing a cup of hot sugary liquid to his lips.  
He opened his mouth and swallowed - hot tea, but sickly sweet. She thought he was going into shock. He wasn’t, if only he could. He felt like the whole world was imploding around him, with him at the centre. Servants scurried around and he could hear the sound of the Sheriff’s horse approaching. He had killed someone after all, killed her dead.  
He gave out a small delirious giggle and Giuseppe merely frowned and helped him sit up against the headboard, trying to bring blankets up to his neck to keep him warm.  
“She was a vampire.” Stefan stated and Giuseppe gave a small nod. “A vampire, father.”  
“I know son.” He nodded again, no argument or resistance to the ridiculousness of the statement.  
Stefan stared at him hard and huffed in disbelief.  
“You brought that monster into my house.” His voice changed to a low, deadly tone and Flora took a step back in surprise.  
Giuseppe held his ground, but looked conflicted.  
“Are you testing me again father?” He tilted his head to look at him as a shiver of fear ran through Giuseppe. “This time I am sane and asking, I’m not medicated or falling off the edge.”  
“No. You’re not.” He agreed.  
“I heard you talking.” Stefan said and looked to Flora. “I heard what you said.”  
Flora, oddly didn’t seem to react, but Giuseppe looked to her anxiously.  
“Tell me what is going on. What game is this?”  
Giuseppe stood up and moved away to pour himself a brandy from his side table. His hands shook profusely as he did so.  
“You said you’d have to kill me.” He pointed out, picking out the pieces of his memory and Giuseppe turned to Flora looking pale.  
“You have no choice now.” She said to Giuseppe and Stefan threw the blankets off of himself and sat up commandingly.  
“So help me father you better explain yourself!”  
Giuseppe drank all of the brandy in one go, reminding Stefan of someone as he did so, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He turned to face him again.  
“I didn’t bring her here son. You did.”  
“What?” Stefan huffed, trying to control his urge to shake the old man.  
“She’s someone from your past, someone who…was involved in you becoming who you are.”  
“What are you talking about? I’ve never seen the girl before today!”  
Giuseppe looked to Flora for help and guidance. Stefan turned to her, wondering what her role here was. She sat down at Stefan’s side, seeming too calm and relaxed. He frowned at her and she reached for his hand and held it gently.  
“You are a man of science – a man who’s seen untold horrors. Yet still, you are gentle, loving and kind. These are the qualities that matter Stefan. These are what you must hold onto, no matter what happens, because they are who you are – part of your soul.” She said gently and he held his breath, waiting for an explanation.  
“Mammy…” he croaked, holding her hand tight.  
Giuseppe sat down on the other side of him and Stefan looked at him too, feeling dread and fear and elation all at the one time. Whatever they were going to tell him was going to change everything – he felt it in his core. He swallowed and nodded to them to continue.  
“There are many things that you will never understand son. Things that as a living man you’re not supposed to – you can’t conceive of them because that is not the plan of it. Growing older here has taught you that there will always be mysteries in life, terrible things that happen that cannot be explained or made right.” Giuseppe paused. “There are people who are good and kind but die, villains and monsters that thrive, children born with such deformities that they should never have existed and we have no idea how they came to be so afflicted. It’s not for us to question or try and make sense of it all. All we can do is try to be our best selves.”  
“Why are you speaking so philosophically?” Stefan queried, feeling as though he was being pulled off topic on purpose.  
“Because I want you to stay here. I want you to understand the way that life goes on its natural course. I want you to be able to continue and grow old – see your grandchildren grow and live a full long life here. I want that for you.” Giuseppe was so emotional. “I want you to stay.”  
“You speak as though I have a choice.” Stefan huffed and thought on the memories of Damon that he had tried to bury. “What were you talking about earlier?” He asked, a little calmer.  
“The consequences of bad choices.” Giuseppe answered and looked down, reaching for his hand.  
Stefan stared aghast at the affection but allowed him to take his hand in his.  
“You mentioned my brother.” Stefan said and Giuseppe bowed his head.  
“He was never supposed to be here.” Giuseppe whispered more to himself than them. “I wanted a clean slate for you.”  
“Explain yourself.” Stefan pulled his hand back and Giuseppe exhaled and looked at him wearily.  
“If you could go back in time and change things that happened, people you met who had influenced bad decisions in your life – would you? If it would mean that you could save yourself untold pain and evil…would you do it?”  
“What are you asking me? Going back in time?” Stefan frowned. “Do you have something to confess?”  
“No.” Giuseppe answered and Stefan clenched his jaw.  
“You did kill Damon didn’t you? That’s what you’re meaning is.”  
Giuseppe sat back and shook his head, huffing in frustration.  
“I did not kill the child Damon, son. That is your fiction. If I had done, I would have been a demon all these years.”  
Stefan paused for a moment, studying him.  
“The child, Damon.” He said and Giuseppe sighed and clasped his hands on his lap, still looking down. “You didn’t kill the child Damon.” Stefan repeated and Giuseppe looked up at him, his eyes bloodshot and saddened.  
They looked at each other for a moment until the realisation dawned.  
“You killed the other one. The man.” Stefan said almost inaudibly, as his brain churned all the facts over like a hamster tirelessly running around on a wheel.  
Giuseppe didn’t try to beg for forgiveness or explain, he merely gave a short nod. Stefan scrambled out of the bed and stood back from both of them. Here sat two people he’d known his entire life and they looked like strangers at this moment.  
“He didn’t belong here, Stefan. He would have hurt you.” Giuseppe said.  
“You stabbed him to death like an animal!” Stefan spat at him. “An innocent man!”  
“He is no innocent and if you remembered you’d know that! You’d understand that!” Giuseppe defended now.  
“Was everything he told me true? Is that why you killed him?!”  
Giuseppe looked to Flora once more and Stefan growled enraged.  
“Answer me!”  
“I did it for you, to protect you.” He said quietly and Stefan felt nausea build in his stomach.  
He let out a puff of air and paced, unsure where to go. He felt trapped in the room with them.  
“Where is he? Where did he go?”   
He tried to keep himself together rationally without falling into the abyss of the fractured part of his psyche that had been the young Stefan Salvatore – the one who’d almost strangled a patient, become a drug addict and been forcibly medicated for almost a year. He wasn’t that man anymore, he had recovered, he had healed, he healed others now, and he had to stay rational, strong, logical and not panic!  
“Flora, please.” Giuseppe closed his eyes and begged of her, drawing Stefan’s attention to her.  
“Mammy?” He whispered, fearing what her part was in this.  
He’d never felt so betrayed, so confused, so alone right now. He couldn’t take knowing that she had betrayed him too, not his mammy.  
She stood up gracefully and approached him. He flinched back from her and little and she stopped and opened her arms to him – as she had done many times since he’d been a child. The urge to throw himself into her embrace was strong. He took a step forward, trying to fight it but couldn’t. He wrapped his arms around her, feeling her hold him and whisper comfortingly. He began to weep into her shoulder.  
“My angel boy.” She cooed and stroked the back of his head slowly. “Don’t be afraid. You are amongst those who love you.”  
He pulled back from her, wiping his eyes and searched her face.  
“Your life will always be yours. Everything that you have experienced here, achieved and loved will always be real.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“You need to understand how much you are loved and why you are here. You were given a second chance at life and you have prospered so well.” She admired, but didn’t try to patronise him.  
“Damon said that this wasn’t the only world – his world was somewhere else. He knew me there.” He said and Giuseppe poured himself another drink.  
“It’s true. There are many worlds, this is just one – this one is for you.” She said.  
“He came looking for me here. He said I belonged with him.”  
“The world he is from was your beginning. You have been expelled from it.”  
“Expelled?” He asked afraid.  
“In your life there part of you died and for your father and myself to save your soul, we brought you here to live again – to become complete.”  
“But if I died there then…”  
“Only a part of you, but an important part. You cannot leave this place without it.”  
“Why? What would happen to me?” He asked, his heart racing.  
Flora and Giuseppe looked to one another again and Stefan placed his hand over his mouth and exhaled.  
“All of my life I knew there was something…missing.”  
Giuseppe huffed and shook his head, drinking from his glass again.  
“When I was on the battlefield he was there. He knew me then.” He remembered and Giuseppe looked at him in surprise. “I was young, just at war and he…found me. How could he find me?”  
Stefan looked to Flora. She seemed to be the one with most answers, with the least amount of emotion here.  
“In your other life you were connected.” She said and Giuseppe sat his glass down sharply, drawing both their attentions.  
“This man Stefan, he is a monster. You may have seen in him the brother that you feel you were denied but he changed you. He led you down a path where you killed people, hurt people, became a monster! He is the worst thing that could have ever happened to you and I wanted to make sure that you were spared of him here. I wanted to build a life for you here where you could live and be happy and grow old with a family of your own. I wanted you to have the life you wanted. You always wanted to be a doctor, since you were little and I made sure you got that here. I made sure, you got everything you wanted.”   
Giuseppe ran out of steam half way through his speech and finished looking down into his glass sullenly. Stefan stared at him, trying to comprehend his words and drew in a raspy breath.  
“Where am I?” He asked, fearing the answer. “Am I in heaven?”  
“You’re in a place where your soul can heal.” Flora said and he sat down, feeling tired and weepy.  
“How did I get here?”   
“We brought you here, rescued you from oblivion when you were forced from your world.” She answered again.  
“Why?”  
“Why?” She repeated in query.  
“Why did you save me? What have I done to earn that? What kind of man was I in that other place that I wouldn’t cross over and go to heaven?” His eyes filled with tears.  
She looked to Giuseppe.  
“You were my son, you took responsibility for any pain you caused. You asked for forgiveness when it was due…”  
“What crimes did I commit?” Stefan sat forward, desperate to know of his other life. “Murder? You said I was a killer. You still think of me as a monster, if you’ve always walked on eggshells around me, fearing I would be like him while I grew up here.”  
“I‘ve always known you weren’t like him.” Giuseppe said sadly. “I hoped that a life here without him, would mean you could prove that.”  
“How could he have been so evil?” Stefan asked shakily, unsure if he wanted to know. “He held me with such tenderness, he loved me. I could feel it, even though I didn’t know him.”  
“Even the Devil has friend.” Giuseppe mumbled and closed his eyes tight.  
Stefan noted a hint of disgust in his expression. He didn’t understand it. They all fell silent and he realised as they sat like that, that there was no other noise around them – no servants running around horrified at the dead body down the hall, no sheriff arresting him for murder, no one else disturbed by the noise. Then he remembered the children, his children.  
He looked to them, his breath catching in his throat.  
“If this place is just for me…my…my children aren’t…” he couldn’t say it, his desperation evident in his whole being and Flora went to him again and hugged him close. “None of this is real. My babies, my…”  
“The idea of them was real, your memories are real, son. What makes them less real or important than that other world – nothing?” Giuseppe tried to console but Stefan growled in pain and separated from Flora in a flurry of movement, rushing for the door to the room.  
He couldn’t live in a world where his children weren’t real. He couldn’t live in any world where they were gone. He just couldn’t. He ran down the hallway, not noticing that it was completely empty of life.  
“Vida, Peter, Thomas!!!” He cried out, his heart thundering with every step he ran towards their bedrooms.  
They would be so afraid. The noise of the gun going off had been so loud and penetrating. They needed him, they would be huddled in their rooms afraid – the boys clinging to each other and calling for him. He ran and ran but the corridor seemed never ending. He finally reached the door to the boys’ bedroom and burst inside. The room was empty. He ripped at his hair and called their names. Nothing. He turned about and ran towards Vida’s room, his beautiful Vida, almost a woman now. He banged on her door, rattling the doorknob as he entered and stopped still.  
The room wasn’t there anymore. It was just…a blank space. He stuck his hand out towards where her bed had been but there was only a fine mist of pearlescent molecules floating in the air like a cloud of smoke long extinguished. He paused, staring at it, almost overwhelmed by how unusual and tranquil it seemed, when he came back to his senses.  
“Vida?” He whispered.  
“I’m so sorry.” Flora’s voice appeared behind him and he spun around. “I didn’t want it to end this way for you. You’ve battled so hard for happiness in both worlds.”  
“What’s happening?” He began to weep. “My family…”  
“They are a part of you now, in your mind.” She stroked his arm. “Your consciousness is returning now that you know where you are and with it comes the fading of the life you have known here.”  
“No!” He croaked in horror. “Please, bring it back!”  
“We are inside your mind my angel. You have already decided that this is ending.” She cupped his face and kissed his cheeks. “Don’t be afraid.”  
“No!!! No, no, no!!” He screamed and fell to his knees. “Vida?! Thomas, Peter!!!!!”  
His heart was being ripped in three parts and he couldn’t take the pain. He leant forward onto his hands and knees trying not to vomit. This wasn’t happening, it wasn’t real. He couldn’t take the pain of knowing he would never see his babies again. They weren’t real, they had never been real…  
He cried out, holding his head and calling on all of the angels he could think of, every verse from his beloved holy book that might aid him and give him solace.  
“Someone help me please…” he cried into his hands.  
He felt Flora around him, holding him and cooing and he felt a little better. Her very presence seemed to help calm him, despite the horror of this moment. He held her back, feeling waves of love filter through him until he stopped weeping and felt himself sink into her small body.  
“Am I dying?” He asked her, still holding on as the rest of the rooms and hallway around him began to blur and fade into a white colour.  
“No precious one. You are evolving.” She smiled, rubbing his back and Giuseppe appeared next to her as though he was a phantom.  
“Father.” Stefan whispered, terrified. “I’m afraid.”  
“I know. I’m here.” Giuseppe said gently.  
“Are you even my father? Are you real?” He lifted his face from Flora’s shoulder and looked up at him.  
“Since the day you were born.” Giuseppe said and offered him his hand. “It’s time to come with me son. Time to rest.”  
Stefan took his hand, holding it tight as he stood up, with Flora on his other side and walked down the hallway, it disappearing with every forward step they took.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
The doors to Klaus’s storage compartment swung open easily as Beth and Bonnie marched inside, calling for him. Beth ran to a bed, noting blood drops and the smell of heat and sweat on the bed clothes. The hairs on her back rose and she tried not to think the worst. Klaus had denied her as her partner for her up-coming heat because he cared, but would he extend the same courtesy to someone else? Had Klaus had someone in this bed and if so whom?  
Nathan had said that Eve had run off with Stefan’s body in heat – could Klaus have kept her here? Would he have..? She shook her head. No. She couldn’t think down this path or she’d drive herself crazy. She pulled at the collar of her shirt, feeling hot and uneasy. Her heat would be coming soon. She knew Nathan could smell it. She figured that that was why he’d wanted to travel with the young female wolf instead of her. She needed Klaus. She wanted him for this. If he died…She couldn’t conceive of it.  
“Beth.” Bonnie called, touching her shoulder and she turned around, trying to regain focus. “Can you feel him?”  
Beth closed her eyes, nodding when she felt the subtle threads of their connection vibrate. It was different from channelling with the other mates – with Anne and Michael the channel was clear and static free, no confusion, but when channelling to Klaus or Nathan it took a little more focus. Perhaps because Nathan was alive and Klaus was – well, different from the rest of them.  
“We need to follow him. I don’t like this.” Bonnie said, looking around the room and seeing evidence of torture.  
They returned to the car, where Vida was napping, when Beth turned and looked into the forest surrounding them. Bonnie paused with her hand on the handle of the car.  
“What?”  
“In there.” Beth said, searching with her eyes. “He went that way.”  
“Ok then. Are you ready?” Bonnie asked, moving inside the car and lifting Vida out from her car seat carefully.  
Beth nodded.  
“Let’s do this.”  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Eve struggled under the weight of the body. Keeping up with Klaus’s torture had been strenuous and she was hungry. If only she hadn’t lost the backpack full of Damon’s blood when the gang of rapist wolves had taken her. Better still, if only Klaus hadn’t allowed Damon to leave when he did. Why had he done that? What little scheme did they have in their heads?   
Still, she supposed it didn’t matter now anyways. The herbs she’d been collecting along her trip had culminated in just the right amount of potion in her blood. She’d expected that she may be surrendered to Klaus by Stefan and Damon’s allies. She’d prepared for it. It was unfortunate that Damon had also fed so much from her. He was probably lying stoned and apathetic to everything somewhere in these woods too. She’d ingested the herbs at certain intervals, surprised that Nisha hadn’t realised her plan as she’d watched her collecting them – so much for Nisha’s naturopathy skills.  
She’d learned a lot from watching the witches while on the other side and had concocted the perfect mix to cause complete apathy – mixtures of vervain, and herbs holding sedative qualities. By eating the herbs fresh from the ground, her digestion cycle would ensure she didn’t suffer as fully from the effects as someone who would drink from her would.   
She’d coaxed Klaus into torture, knowing he’d bite her to test whether his werewolf venom would harm a mated body – he was so obvious. As soon as he’d taken some of her blood into him, the potion in her blood would begin to affect him.   
She hadn’t intended to try and mate with Damon though and feeding was such an intrinsic part of mating that she’d forgotten whilst doing so that he would also suffer the potion’s affliction given time – although later, as her blood cocktail would have matured more by the time Klaus had kidnapped them.   
Her plan had worked so far, in most ways – although she was horrified at the way her descendants lived now. Never in her time would a pack of wolves have taken a female and forcibly bred her. That was what had happened now though. She had been too out of it to understand what their reasons were but whatever the excuse, they had broken a fundamental law between wolves. Rape and breaking of a mating bond was punishable by banishment. It was abhorrent in principle. People living in this age seemed to have shed a lot of their morals however. She had seen it in the humans too.  
She shifted the weight of Klaus’s body on her shoulder and soldiered on through the dense forest. When she reached a clearing big enough to lay his body down, she threw him there and looked around. She’d lost her brummer when she’d been kidnapped by the rapist wolves. Damn them! She’d have to make another one.  
She broke off a branch and split the wood to a smooth point, biting in a few holes as she had done before hand. This wood wasn’t great for carrying the sound but it would have to suffice. Either way, her conspirators would get the message. She moved to a tree hanging with Spanish moss and grabbed some from it, hoping that she could somehow fashion some rope, when she heard voices. She stopped, looking back to Klaus’s body, still lying with his eyes open but nonplussed. He was manageable. It was someone else.  
She waited, hiding in the bushes until she saw them. She stepped out to greet them, relieved as they approached Klaus’s body.  
“I am Eve.” She said as they stopped, looking to her emerging from the bushes. “I am the first.”  
The leader of the clan was a dark haired woman in her fifties. She looked hardened by life and strong, formidable even. Eve liked her immediately and offered her her hand. The woman shrunk back from her and Eve remembered her ‘disguise’. They didn’t want to touch a vampire.  
“I have tranquillized him for a while. He won’t fight.” She advised and the rest of the party – five of them in total, came around to look at the infamous hybrid killer.  
“Any other complications?” The woman asked her.  
“Some, but they have all been handled. The mate of this body is roaming around the woods. I’m unsure of his intentions but he won’t harm this body. He will probably be drugged by the herbs in my system now and no threat to the plan.”  
“He is unaware of our involvement?”  
“Yes.”  
“Good. And our arrangement still stands.” The leader looked to her for confirmation and Eve paused.  
“I may want to remain in this body, if I can have its mate alive and unharmed.” She said and the leader grew tense. “Klaus has other descendants. I can use this body to monitor them, keep them away from you.”  
“That was never part of the deal. Enough magic to do the spell to bring you here and surrender Klaus to us and then you give the body over for consumption.”  
Eve watched as they all grew tense and held themselves ready for a fight.  
“I mean no disrespect. Your people are my people. I merely want to protect you and the best way to do that is for me to remain earthbound.”  
“And the extra power we need for consumption? You believe his body is enough?” A man in second command came forward, looking more aborigine than traveller in appearance.  
“Completely. He’s the most powerful being on the planet that we know of. From him, you’ll never have to worry about straying from the source ever again. There are other mates and worse – babies who have been created from this violation of nature. One by one I can bring them all to you. This body will be the best guise we could hope for for that. This body is beloved and his friends will follow looking for it. That’s how I will ensnare them.”  
Her cohorts seemed to consider that offer with great interest.  
“If only we could consume all of the vampire mates, we wouldn’t ever need to feel afraid again.” One male member of the group said.  
“That is what I want for you, if in turn you promise not to disrupt the lives of full wolves.” Eve added and was met by nods of agreement.  
“Ok. Let’s begin.” The leader said and Eve hoisted the uncaring Klaus over her shoulder and led the way through the forest.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
The world that Stefan knew, fell away around him as though it had all been a mirage. He was numb, unable to process it. If he considered it was real for a moment then he would go mad. The thought that his home, his life, his family, all of the work he had done at the hospital, friends he had made…were all illusions, then he might lose his grip on reality.  
He was led, side by side by his beloved Flora and his father. Two guardians he’d never have put together in his mind. They walked until everything was white, even the sky above him. The ground paled to a white colour too until it was almost painfully bright to open his eyes.  
He felt a hand on his back and looked to his father.  
“I’m afraid.” He admitted.  
“You have nothing to fear, son. You lived a good life here.”  
“I haven’t been to confession for months father.” He worried.  
“You are a good man.” Giuseppe encouraged and gave him a push forward.  
There was no one in front of him and yet he felt compelled to move away from his guardians.  
“Will I meet god?” He whispered and when no one answered, he waited.  
Slowly, beyond the whiteness ahead of him, he saw someone moving, walking towards him. He held his breath and waited patiently. The silhouette of the person blurred and he was unable to tell whether it was male or female until it was a few steps away. He fell back shouting out in fear as he realised he was looking at himself.  
“Ahhh!!!” he cried out but the figure seemed not to notice his fear and kept walking into him.  
He shielded his face and body as the figure walked right through him. He awaited the contact of their bodies but it never came and he opened his eyes. The figure was gone. He touched his chest, feeling heat there and looked around confused. Another set of movements began – this time there were two figures and he looked to them, just as afraid.  
“Relax son.” Giuseppe said calmly and Stefan looked back at him.  
“I don’t understand.” He whispered and turned back to see another vision of himself walking as though he meant to walk into him.  
He cried out again and tried to push the imposter away but felt his chest grow warmer than before. The second figure walked into him before he had a chance to react and Stefan realised that they were entering him, entering his soul. He breathed, holding his hand to his chest and looked forward. More, so many more figures began to move and appear.  
“Your other lives Stefan. The other parts of your soul. They will make you complete.” Flora advised and he relaxed, realising the truth in her words as he felt his body begin to glow.  
Each figure that passed into him, made him feel better, less afraid and just…more. It was good. It felt right. He began to move towards them, trying to embrace them and found himself smiling and laughing. He felt high! There were so many. How many times had he lived before? Finally, the procession ended and only one was left. This figure seemed to move differently from the others though, almost as though it was conscious. The others had merely been on auto-pilot, like shadows of white, memories even, but this one seemed alive.   
It moved towards him, unsure and with clothing on. He squinted, holding his breath and looked back to Giuseppe.  
“Is that…the last me? From the other world?” He asked and Giuseppe nodded and looked to the figure with a look of longing.  
This was it then? This was the end? Once he had joined with this last incarnation, he’d be complete?  
The figure stopped a few feet away and studied him, looking just as nervous as he was.  
“I tried.” The figure said. “I tried to be…”  
“All is forgiven here Stefan.” Giuseppe said to the figure and both of them looked at him with the same expression of anxiety and curiosity. “It’s time to heal now.”  
They looked back to each other, both swallowing.  
“I’ll never regret loving him, no matter what damnation awaits. You would feel the same.” The other Stefan said and took a few steps closer.  
“I regret none of the people I’ve loved either, even if they weren’t really real.” He agreed and they both gave each other a small unsure smile of agreement and moved into each other.  
Stefan felt the heat in his chest surge and his heart palpitated. He sucked in a deep breath and opened his eyes again. The other Stefan was gone. He held his chest and smiled. He felt different somehow, more solid, heavier.  
Flora appeared at his side at that moment and hugged him.  
“You are at one with your soul now.” She smiled happily. “You can pass on now my darling.”  
He looked to Giuseppe, reaching out for his hand when he felt the stir of a memory. Damon had kissed him on that battlefield. He blinked. Damon had kissed him unlike that of a brother and clung to him. At first he’d thought that it was simply the desperation of a dying man in seeing a friendly face or someone he’d recognised but it was more than that. That other Stefan had said he didn’t regret loving ‘him’.  
He looked to Giuseppe in confusion. Giuseppe raised his eyebrows as he stood next to him.  
“Father. The other me, the last me…were he and Damon in love?” He felt ridiculous even asking such a question, but the expression on Giuseppe’s face told all.  
Stefan gasped, horrified. Two men? Two brothers no less?  
“He always had an influence on you that was destructive, son. It’s over now. You have atoned.”  
“How did I atone?” He asked, stopping them from moving any further through this strange white space.   
“You asked the universe for forgiveness every day, with every part of your heart.” Giuseppe answered and Stefan thought on that.  
“Not for the love.” He said. “He just told me that. He’d never regretted loving him. He didn’t atone for that part.”  
“It’s all unimportant now son. You are a good man. You did your life over and you married a woman, gave her children. You followed the words of god. You didn’t stray.”  
“But I didn’t know anything. How can my life rule out the other when it was spent in this place, when it wasn’t real?” He realised.  
He looked between them.  
“How can I know where I am going next if I don’t know what I did before? If I don’t remember my journey here.” He pointed out and Giuseppe opened his mouth to object when Flora quietened him with a wave of her hand.  
“This is your journey. You choose how you want to proceed.” She advised and he nodded.  
“Stefan you don’t need to remember…”  
“I have to. I have to know what this life has been atoning for.” He said and nodded to Flora again.  
She closed her eyes and concentrated and he began to see images sweeping through his mind. They all seemed so alien – strange objects, noises, people he didn’t know. He took a few deep breaths as the images sped up, almost as though he was dying and having flashbacks over an entire life. Perhaps that’s exactly what was happening.  
Giuseppe held himself tight, anxious and afraid of what remembering his previous life would do to all of the work they had done here, to the man standing before him who was sin free. Flora touched Stefan’s forehead with her fingertips and he opened his eyes after a few moments. Giuseppe held himself, watching closely.  
Stefan took a step back and turned his back to them, breathing heavily.  
“Son?” He said gently, not wanting to startle him out of his thoughts too much.  
Stefan didn’t turn around straight away. Flora waited calmly.  
“I don’t know what to say.” Stefan said slowly, his voice laced with a strange emotion that Giuseppe couldn’t place.  
He turned around to look at him, his eyes full of emotion – but which one? Hatred? Anger? Love?  
“For so long I’ve wanted your forgiveness for how I killed you. I never meant to feed on you. I was going to die and end it all, but I wasn’t strong enough to fight it. I was just a boy.” Stefan continued and Giuseppe nodded.  
“You always kept me that way. I was such a child. You and Damon shielded me from everything, Damon especially. He even went to war so that I didn’t have to, so that your duties to the effort were done by society standards.” He thought on that and Giuseppe grew tight, ready to argue. “Here, without him I had to face the harsh realities.”  
“Here you had a chance.” Giuseppe said and Stefan gave a small nod. “Here you didn’t have him whispering in your ear. You didn’t feel the need to follow him.”  
“No. Instead I had to follow you.” Stefan pointed out. “I had to follow your perceptions of what I was supposed to be – you, who had the foresight and hindsight of everything that I’d ever done wrong before, of every mistake I’d ever made in another life, as though it hung above me like the sword of Damocles.”  
Giuseppe felt stunned by his comments.  
“I know you love me father - in both worlds. I know that you were trying to help me and look out for me, but I am the one who has to make my own way. I have to make my own decisions because I believe them to be right. I even tried to do it here, despite not knowing who I was.”  
“Stefan…”  
“I never regretted finding out about Damon. I never regretted trying to ask mother, no matter how hard you beat me for it. I thought of him enough to make him manifest here.” Stefan paused. “I don’t regret it because it kept me sane. I needed someone who wouldn’t judge me. I needed someone who just accepted me and my brother was that person.”  
“Stefan he has no remorse. He feels no guilt and you now remember everything that he has done!” Giuseppe felt himself get angry.  
“You understand so little about him, even now.” Stefan shook his head sadly. “He feels things more deeply than most people I know. The emotion is too deep inside of him for him to be able to cope so he shuts it away. Except now, we are mated father and I can feel everything. I know everything and I can help him. I will help him, even if it takes another 100 years.”  
“It’s not your responsibility to save him Stefan, it’s his own! He must come to terms and repent, just like you have!”  
“And he will, in his own time.” Stefan nodded calmly. “Let me be damned for believing in him, for loving him despite it all.”  
Giuseppe turned away in disgust and looked to Flora for aid again. Stefan turned to her.  
“Flora, what are you?” He asked, studying her with new eyes, trying to look for an indication from her body on what kind of being she was.  
“I was flesh and blood like you. Now I am a guide.” She smiled.  
“Are you an angel?” He asked, stepping close and reaching for her hands and she simply smiled. “What’s going to happen to me?”  
“You can cross over now.” She said and he gulped and looked at the space of whiteness ahead of them.  
“I’m not ready.” He said shakily and Giuseppe squeezed his shoulders from behind.  
“It’s time son.”  
“I have to go back.”  
“You can’t. Your body is occupied. It’s not possible.” Giuseppe huffed, losing patience and Stefan shrugged him off and looked at him.  
“I don’t deserve to be saved. I haven’t atoned for my evils.”  
“No, no, Stefan you are a good man – all of this life you proved yourself. Now it’s time to go!” Giuseppe seemed to be quite uptight and anxious to make Stefan believe his words and Stefan frowned at him.  
“It’s your choice Stefan.” Flora said and Giuseppe grabbed him again.  
“Son, you have made good. You’re ready to cross over with me. Your mother awaits you.” Why did he seem so desperate?  
“It doesn’t count father. A serial killer who comes down with amnesia doesn’t stop being guilty, no matter who tries to convince him of that.” He said and Giuseppe paled and shook his head.  
“Stefan don’t.”  
“Why are you so afraid?” He asked him and Giuseppe squeezed him harder. “Let me go.”  
“No. I can’t lose you, son.” Giuseppe said full of remorse.  
“We have just spent a lifetime together with you controlling me, underestimating my moral conscience. You have to let me go.” Stefan said and removed Giuseppe’s hands. “You can’t protect me from my own death.”  
Giuseppe took a step back, pained.  
“Trust me.” He said and Giuseppe’s eyes filled with tears.  
“All I ever wanted for you, was a good life son. It was all I wanted for both of you. I made so many mistakes…”  
“You were just a man father. A man in a time of war and greed and fear. Here, you were haunted by that past just as much as when we were all in the midst of its possibilities.”  
Giuseppe gave a grateful nod.  
“I can’t keep looking behind anymore. I need to look forward.” He looked ahead of them all and Giuseppe nodded enthusiastically.  
“Yes.”  
“But before I do that, I have to pay for what I’ve done. I can’t accept a clean slate when I haven’t earned it.” He said with finality and Giuseppe swallowed grief as the landscape around them began to change.  
Stefan looked around, his skin tingling with fear.  
“What’s happening?”  
“In this place you create the world around you Stefan. It’s a place of healing – where you feel you belong to work out unfinished business.” Flora said and went to Giuseppe, holding his arm as Giuseppe reached for Stefan.  
Stefan’s heart began to beat faster and his breathing quickened.  
“So this will be what I choose to redeem myself?” He asked, his flickering around to the dark shapes and smells of earth that began to fill the white space.  
Flora nodded sadly and he braced himself, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.  
“Then I can do it.” He said confidently. “I need to do it.”  
“There’s one last offer I can make you Stefan.” Flora lingered as Giuseppe faded until gone.  
Stefan felt tears well in his eyes at the loss of his father. Yes, he was mad, tortured and cruel but he was just a simple man born in a time of simple ideas and fears. Clearly all of his time on the other side hadn’t helped him evolve. What that did that mean for the timeline of this healing place then? Could he spend a day of his time here and it be a hundred years in the real world? One hundred-odd years in the real world and Giuseppe’s soul hadn’t changed. It didn’t fill Stefan with hope.  
He looked to Flora, reaching out for her hands again and she squeezed his warmly.  
“The impossible children.” She said and he exhaled and nodded. “I can take them with me now, if you wish.”  
“What?” He frowned confused.  
“They don’t belong in nature on your world. Their future is uncertain, their death even less so. If I take them now, they will come with me to the other side where they will be at peace.” She said, no judgement or expression on her face.  
“You want to kill them?!” He gasped in disbelief and she shook her head and squeezed his hands.  
“I’m offering you the choice on whether they’re souls are jeopardised or not – should they commit evils, there may be no place in any world for them – they are not of nature.”  
“You can’t ask me to make that choice, she’s my baby.” He shook his head horrified.  
“The monster you saw when you first entered this place…” she paused and he shook his head, not following her, so she continued, “The woman with the dead child in her arms. That is a potential future. These children may become what you saw.”  
“That’s a big if!”   
Stefan held his stomach, remembering the horror of the way the woman’s mouth had opened impossibly wide, of how she’d eviscerated hordes of humans all while carrying a dead but still suckling baby in her arms. The baby had been horrific – alive to a small extent but rotting like a corpse. God.  
He looked around again, seeing a forest sprouting up.  
“They are innocents who don’t deserve to perish. If they live and become the monsters I’ve foreseen, then their souls will be destroyed when death comes.” She said, her voice soft and melancholy.  
“No.” He shook his head, thinking of his precious angel baby.   
She was good, she would be kind and full of love. There wasn’t a bad bone in her. He’d make sure that she grew up better than he and Damon had. She wouldn’t turn into that monster he’d seen. Toby was just a little boy too, a normal little boy. As much as Klaus’s influence may affect him, may make his adulthood a little more of a risk here, he couldn’t imagine Beth allowing him to turn into a monster either. They deserved a chance at life. Who was he to judge based on the few months of their lives what kind of people they would grow to become?  
He looked to her as she waited.  
“I won’t become my father. I don’t know who she’ll grow up to be, but I will not condemn her before she’s even begun. I won’t presume to judge her. I’ve had enough of that to last me another few lifetimes.”   
He breathed and she smiled and nodded.   
“People like Damon and Klaus are created. They’re not born to do evil things. Both of them feel and love and hurt. I only met Klaus’s father once and it was when he was trying to kill Klaus like a dog. His fear reminded me so much of how my brother used to look at my father when we were boys.” He paused. “I don’t know what Klaus’s life was like as a child, if it was that that made him hard and unforgiving and bitter, but what I do know is that love can make a difference and I plan on giving Damon and Vida as much unconditional love as I can. Even if it’s from over here.”  
He swallowed tears back, realising that he wouldn’t be joining them again. This was the end for him now. He breathed, feeling as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He’d said everything he wanted to say and he felt calm, accepting, ready. He nodded to her and she kissed his cheeks softly like she had done when he was a child in both worlds.  
“Thank you, for loving me.” He whispered and she drew back, fading into the air.  
He turned around, ready for what was to come.


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter 45 TH

The forest seemed ominous as he faced it, collecting himself. This was a place of healing, a place where he could come to terms and evolve. How did he start? He looked behind him, wishing Flora had stayed to guide him through this part too. So strange to be thrown from one life into another. His most recent life as Dr Stefan Salvatore clung to him like fabric. It may not have been a real physical existence but it had been as real as his true life on earth. It made his thoughts jumbled and uncertain. He was a modern man of the 19th century in his mind, but he also remembered all of his vampire life and they to say they clashed was an understatement.  
He wasn’t sure how to begin healing here. He should try to think logically – just like he helped his patients. He remembered the voice that had spoken as if from the shadows, when he’d first been dumped here into the dark. The voice had said he was in hell. Had he been?  
“Hello?” He called out.  
Nothing made the slightest whisper and it was unnerving. There didn’t even appear to be any animals or insects here, just total silence.  
“I…I need help. Please.” He called out.  
Still nothing.  
“I’m afraid.” He mumbled to himself and heard a tiny sound.  
It was almost inaudible it was so quiet, but he picked up on it and began to follow. Other than the lack of any life, the forest seemed like a real one, full of mud, leaves and tree roots sticking up out of the soil for him to trip on. He moved clumsily, too distracted by following the sound to pay heed to his footing, when he fell on to his knees in mud. He cursed and stood up, hearing a whimpering sound as he did.   
He looked to the direction it was coming from and could see what looked like a person huddled beyond some thick bushes.  
“Hello?” He called.  
He moved quickly over to the source, pushing bushes aside as he tried to fight his way through when a branch caught him and scratched his face. He held his face in surprise and fell back a little, before fighting to get through to the other side. He emerged, now dirty and with a bleeding scratch on his cheek, to a woman huddled over the body of a young man. He froze and stared. The woman was weeping and holding the body in her arms, obscured from his vision of the face.  
“Are you ok? Are you hurt?” He asked, his inner doctor kicking in and the woman ignored him. “Please, let me help you.”  
He touched her shoulder and she looked at him. He flew backwards crying out as he stared into empty eye sockets. He put his hand over his mouth in revulsion and the woman let out a screech that could have broken any mirror within a hundred mile radius. She was almost like a banshee.   
Every hair on Stefan’s body rose and he put his hands over his ears, trying to block out some of the sound. Still the wailing continued and Stefan stepped back from her, attempting to escape the noise. He could feel his ears beginning to bleed from the sheer force of sound.  
The woman closed her mouth again and he panted, fighting the urge to run. She still looked in his direction and he shiver involuntarily, trying to avoid looking into the black holes in her head. She raised a finger and pointed towards him. Was it a silent command? He wasn’t sure. He took a step forward again when he felt the ground shake.  
He held onto a tree next to him to keep his balance but still the woman remained poised with her finger pointing towards him. He felt a shimmer of fear as he realised what she was doing. She was pointing to him in judgement. He looked down at the body for the first time and screamed, falling back into the tree stump as he saw his own face. The body was his and it was grotesque – torn apart at the limbs and being held in the shape of its former structure like a jigsaw puzzle and the irony didn’t elude him. This had been his M.O when he’d been a ripper. He’d torn limbs off in a frenzy and tried to assemble the bodies again. He’d seen and done a lot of hideous things but seeing his own body torn apart like this brought it home.  
“I’m sorry!” He gasped and looked to the woman again. “I was a monster.”  
The ground shook again and he heard himself calling out for Flora before he’d made the conscious decision to. He wasn’t sure how seeing this macabre scene was supposed to help him evolve. Maybe he’d made a mistake. Maybe he should call for his father again.  
He tried to move away in the opposite direction when the same woman appeared in front of him again, playing out the same scenario – pointing to him, holding his own dismembered body. He panicked and ran, trying to escape when he found her again in front of him and again and again and again…No matter which way he fled, he couldn’t escape her.  
He fell to his knees and sobbed in defeat.  
“Please, I don’t understand. What do you want me to do?!” he cried out, hoping the elusive voice would argue.  
“Die.” The voice finally appeared and he stood up on alert, adrenaline charging through his limbs as he sensed danger all around him.  
“You are not the devil. I know this place is for healing! I know I am not in hell!!” he cried out but fear betrayed the measure of his voice and he was rewarded with sounds of mocking laughter.  
“Flora.” He breathed, looking around as he heard the sounds of people approaching.  
This had happened last time, except he’d been somewhere so dark that he couldn’t see. How had he come full circle? Roots of trees began to burst out of the ground and he yelped and tried to move out of the way. It looked as if the trees themselves were trying to uproot and flee. He jumped out of the way of one and fell into another when he saw fingers. The hands had come again.  
The tried to stamp on them, looking for the hole that he’d been dragged into before, but it didn’t appear. He trampled on a few grabbing out for him, when he saw the bodies of his victims, headless and armless walking towards him to trap him there. Everywhere he turned there were body parts reaching for him and he knew he couldn’t escape. Not this time. This time Giuseppe wasn’t going to arrive and rescue him, carrying him away as a child. This was where he should have been the whole time he’d been living another new life. He hadn’t made up for his evil. He hadn’t paid for it. He’d been rescued before he’d had that chance. Now that he was here again, he realised what he had to do. He had to suffer for what he’d done, so he’d let them have him.  
He closed his eyes and nodded. He was beyond terrified but he knew this was right.  
“I’m so sorry for everything I’ve done. For every life I’ve taken.” He spoke and stopped trying to avoid the grabbing arms despite everything in his body telling him to fight.  
The arms dragged him down onto the ground and he lay back, unable to prevent himself from weeping none the less.  
“I surrender.” He whispered as he was pulled into the earth completely, leaving the woods deathly silent and still.  
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Marcus half dragged Damon over to the tent where his daughter lay. The vampire was still weakened and stoned. He hoped to god that he had enough strength left to compel her back to consciousness.   
Shouts and cries for him began outside of the tent and he looked towards the din as Damon flopped to the ground and grunted. He rushed out to see a group of people walking into the camp, holding a limp body in their arms. He stood tall immediately and approached them with his hands up in front of him in a gesture of peace.  
The men from his tribe gathered behind him for support, with Andrea at the forefront, holding the Brummer.  
A woman in her fifties held back the other group and motioned for the body they were carrying to be dropped to the ground. Marcus watched the dust swirl as they did just that. The woman in charge went into her backpack and withdrew a wooden object, showing it to Marcus. It was another Brummer.  
He breathed steadily. They were travellers.  
“You heard our call.” He said carefully in the mother tongue.   
The strangers stared at him carefully, apprehensively. If they really were kin to them, then they’d still understand the old language – if they had held with some of their traditions anyway. Everyone waited, sizing each other up.  
“I am Angela.” The lead woman offered, speaking back in the same tongue and Marcus smiled relieved.  
“Marcus.”  
“You’ve found the source.” She pointed to the swamp and he nodded. “How? It took our tribe almost fifty years.”  
Marcus’s eyes widened at that. His people had been lost for hundreds of years.  
“I followed a mate here.” He looked towards the body laying staring up at the sky, alive but unresponsive and wondered if this was Damon’s mate.  
The woman kicked at the leg of the body and Marcus looked at the man’s face. “Don’t worry he’s sedated.”  
“Is he..?” He began when the woman shook her head. “What is he?”  
“The answer to our prayers. The hybrid.” She clarified and he gaped and looked to the body again.  
Damon had said that the original wolf had taken his mate’s body to kill the hybrid. Clearly she had done so with the aid of these travellers and their link to the source. Why had they then brought the hybrid here? Why hadn’t he been killed already and where was the wolf?  
“Where is the mate you followed here? How did he guide you?” Angela asked, noting the questions flickering across his expression and sensing his unease.  
“He’s contained. He’s holding my daughter under compulsion.” He explained.  
He was unsure how much information he should confide. These people were travellers but they were unknown to him. How could he trust them really? What were there intentions?  
“Killing him will end a compulsion. Where do you have him?” One of Angela’s men said and Marcus nodded his head, annoyed that he hadn’t figured something as simple as that out for himself.  
“Feed him to the source.” Another man said and Angela shook her head as Marcus frowned in confusion.  
“No, if we do that then the compulsion will remain. Remember, the source doesn’t kill it transmogrifies. If the energy is transformed into another form, then its influence remains on the physical. Only real death will break its influence.” She explained to them and turned to Marcus.  
“What do you mean, feed the source?” Marcus asked and she sighed, not unsurprised that he was unaware of the catastrophe facing them all.  
“Come, cousin. We have a lot to discuss.” She motioned to him to come nearer and he did so, against his better judgement.  
To his surprise, she hugged him to her warmly and he held her back as the tension between the two tribes lessened.  
“I have so many questions.” He admitted and she pulled back to smile at him in welcome.  
“Enough for years of discussion my friend. You’re home.”  
“I must ask, what happened to the original wolf?” He said and she frowned in surprise. “We didn’t call to you to alert you to our presence here. We were trying to alert you to her intentions.”  
“We knew her intentions from the beginning.” She put an arm around him and they walked to a fallen log and sat down as the others began to mingle, completely ignoring the hybrid body laying at their feet.  
“First tell us your story. How did you manage to capture a mate?” She asked, turning to him.  
“It was the other way around. He found us and ensured a deal – using my daughter as leverage.”  
She gritted her teeth and he had the distinct impression that if she were a cat she’d be hissing venomously right now.  
“He wanted me to break the blood connection to the original wolf to spare his human and wolf descendants being used by her anymore.”  
Angela raised an eyebrow and he nodded.  
“Yes, he told us of her attempts to use the element which had cultivated in them, to bring herself back from the other side.”  
“You were unaware?” She asked surprised and suspicious and he nodded embarrassed.  
“Our connection to our magic has weakened so considerably, we were unaware of the event.” He admitted and she nodded, exhaling and squeezed his hand.  
“We have all felt the drain in the source, although our proximity to it has shielded us from the drain somewhat.”  
“He said that the wolf failed, but that she had taken over his mate’s body to try and act out her revenge again. He wanted the blood connection broken in exchange for his life as he believes that his mate’s soul is dead. We agreed and used the Holixa incantation to use the element in his blood to navigate here.”  
Angela smiled impressed.  
“Impressive. Our attempts to do so failed for a long time.” She said and he exhaled and nodded.  
“Ours did too. We had human potential recently and the spell killed him. I think it worked because this one is a full vampire mate. Its body is more robust.” He said and she nodded in agreement.  
“Why such concern for humans and wolves?” She mumbled, thinking.  
“There’s secrets I can’t seem to pull from his mind.” Marcus agreed.  
“Did you break the connection?”  
“Not yet. I feared he would leave my daughter with her body dormant.”  
“We will take care of him first. She will return to normal – I have seen death undo a compulsion before.”  
“But he’s not just a vampire. Will that change anything?” He worried and she shook her head.  
“It is the vampire part of him that controls that. Fear not.” She said, brushing his fear aside.  
“What is your story?” He leant forward now and she relaxed and sat back, her hands at her sides on the log.  
“We felt a change in the source, the vibration changed. We didn’t realise what was happening at first until some of our children stopped being able to practise. Now all of the children are disconnected.”  
“Our children cannot connect either.” He confirmed.  
“Now we all feel it – it’s like we are slower, unable to communicate with elements around us. A simple spell of fire is taxing for most of us now.”  
“When did it start? The drain?”  
“Around a month or so ago. You?” She looked to him.  
“Our magic has been decreasing gradually for longer than that.” He looked down to his clasped hands.  
He thought for a few minutes.  
“The re-birthing spell that the original wolf attempted recently, it was of a similar timeline.” He said and she shook her head.  
“No. We felt no changes during that spell. We were aware of what was happening, preparing to end her life once she’d accomplished her task. It was weeks later we noticed a change.”  
“Our human potential was half crazed from that spell. If he was part of it, would his blood being used as a compass have affected the source?” He wondered and she seemed to think on it.  
“I don’t think so. Although our magic created the element in them, they aren’t linked to the source.”  
“Such a waste.” Marcus shook his head, thinking on the poor man.  
“Thankfully the purpose he was made for is finally ending.” She said in consolation.   
“How did your part in this begin?” He ached to know.  
“After her re-birth failed she had gained some presence on here from the energy she had managed to obtain from them – it made her able to communicate with us through dreams. She begged for our assistance in drawing this thousand year old spell to its conclusion.”  
“Why help?” He asked.  
“Because at this time we noticed the drain on the source. We thought she may be able to find out from our ancestors on the other side, what was causing it.”  
“And did she?”  
Angela shook her head and grew tight in her muscles.  
“Then why help her if she had no answers. Her grievance isn’t our fight.” He prompted.  
“You’re right. I feel no obligation whatsoever to end the life of the hybrid. He has his business and we have ours. However, he is the most powerful being on the planet and she advised that he could supply the boost to the source that we need to stop the drain on our magic.” She paused and looked at him and he thought it all through quickly. “She agreed in exchange for our assistance in obtaining a body, that she’d bring the hybrid to us so we can feed him to the source. He may not be dead but he will be transform into the energy around us. It was a good enough outcome for her when we made the agreement.”  
“And now she has changed her mind?” He asked incredulously and Angela nodded, smiling as she exhaled in mirth.  
“Now she has become enamoured with the body and wants its mate too, so she can continue to live under the guise of being our protector.” She scoffed.  
“We can’t allow that.”  
“Absolutely not. No one except our tribe can know where the source is. The mate has to be fed to the water also.”  
Marcus nodded. The soul was dead anyway. It was just a body now.  
“Dead things shall restore the life to the source.” She mumbled.  
“So it’s true then? The water is safe for the living.” He asked and she nodded.  
He breathed in relief that they were all safe. The source looked like a swamp but was something else entirely. It revitalised, restored and made the people who drank from it healthy and more powerful, but it also meant that for something dead – it consumed. Life and death both existed in its makeup. A dead thing like a vampire would be eaten up and redistributed back into the earth. It was the natural order of nature to do so. The living and breathing ground and creatures that roamed the woods here, existed only because of the nutrients provided by the bodies of the creatures below the soul.  
In death bodies were laid to rest and the earth consumed them and used their remains to encourage life. The same principle applied here. If they put a vampire into that water, it would become part of the ecosystem, ceasing to be an animated creature anymore but yet alive in the life around it, part of it.  
He’d prevented Damon from putting his hand in the water even though he was draw to do so – all creatures of a supernatural makeup would be drawn, however he’d needed Damon ‘alive’ to break the compulsion. Normally death ended a compulsion but if Damon were to be consumed he wouldn’t technically die, simply be transformed into the woods, or the reeds or the ground beneath their feet. Alive in another fashion and trapped like that without knowledge or conscious forever. It seemed a just punishment for a vampire, but still…Well, death it was then.  
“What did you do with the wolf?” Marcus asked.   
“Contained.” Angela said and motioned to some men now arriving into the camp for the first time and looking around confused and alarmed at the new faces.  
They came forward when they spotted her, questioning in their eyes but obedience in their movements. They held with them another body – this one with a broken neck and its hands and feet tied. This must be Damon’s mate then – the vessel for the original wolf spirit. He looked like no more than a boy, but vampires were deceptively aged well.  
“We’ve waited a long time to get her back here.” She stated and he nodded.  
She patted his shoulder and when they touched they both felt a charge and smiled widely.  
“Family.” She said. “We’ve looked for others for a long time. We’re glad you’re here.”  
“We are too.” He said, unable to stop the smile spreading across his face.  
“All that’s left to do is finish this. Will you help?” She asked and he looked to the Hybrid and to the other mate.  
“Which one first?”  
“Her. Let’s be rid of her.” She indicated to the mate’s body and he nodded.  
“That body doesn’t carry much energy though and I’ll wager that I am older.”   
She grinned at the corner of her mouth and studied his body and he chuckled.  
“I’ve used the body jump many times over. I was the one who carried on the mother tongue and traditions. All bodies were offered to me willingly of course.” He explained.  
“A true elder. Offering you their bodies would have been an honour.” She smiled and continued. “It’s not the mated body that’s important, only her spirit inside. She’s a thousand years old and she’s been on the other side. Her energy will be potent and concentrated. We could harness that for generations to come. We’ve been trying to lure her back into a body for hundreds of years, but we weren’t strong enough. We had to wait for the bloodline to multiply enough for her to come half way herself.”  
He asked smiled impressed.  
“Like my fathers before me, I’ve been tracking the descendants for a long time, hoping that she would seize an opportunity to use them.”  
“There are so few of them.” He stated and Angela smirked.  
“There would be a lot less had we not protected them. We needed to ensure they survived and multiplied. That’s been the job of my family for a long time.”  
“You protected them?” He asked, frowning and she nodded.  
“The human ones. The one who became vampires were harder to track – although I had my suspicions they’d be more useful. They couldn’t know we were watching though so we had to be discrete.”  
“And I killed one by accident.” He said remorsefully and Angela patted his arm.   
“The humans are weaker. We really only kept an eye on them so they would reproduce and continue the line.” She advised and gave a small smile. “It doesn’t matter anymore because we are here and we’ve won. We don’t need them anymore.”  
Marcus looked towards his tent, realising that Damon had not emerged. Was he even still conscious? They should kill him first, to make sure that his beloved angel didn’t miss this grand event in their history.  
He gathered his people around him and they went to him happy and elated. The children began to play around the new members and Angela began the ritual for laying the wolf’s spirit in the water. They would simply need to chant a transmogrification spell together and let the mated body sink into the water, turning the very molecules into water and letting it disperse.  
He looked to the body, seeing consciousness beginning to form.  
“What if she tries to jump out of the body?” He asked, trying to plan for all variables.  
“A spirit can only possess a body not under the full ownership of its soul.” She said.  
“Of course.” He remembered.  
“Before we start the transmogrification, I want my daughter with me. Let’s kill the mate first.” He said and she nodded as he guided the way to the tent where he’d left Damon’s zoned out body.


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter 46 TH

Damon rolled onto his side as he listened to the travellers talking. Things were starting to make sense finally. All along grandma had planned to feed Stefan’s body to the water. She never had any intention of returning him. It was over. He had no idea where Bonnie was or what she could even do anyway.  
He sat up slowly and looked blankly to the sleeping girl next to him. If he was going to die, he had to make it worth it. He had to have them break the spell, but he no longer had any faith that they would bargain with him and keep their side of the deal.   
He looked to the girl again and sighed. Her heart seemed steady enough, the little heart beat in her stomach though – was it supposed to sound like that? He couldn’t remember what Vida’s heart had sounded like inside Stefan. She’d been no human baby anyway. What a waste.  
He heard Marcus approach with another person and he pulled the unconscious girl into his lap, holding her throat with one hand and allowing his fangs to fill his mouth. Marcus entered the tent, moving the entrance aside for a woman traveller beside him. Damon looked up at them both menacingly. Marcus paused, looking at his daughter.  
“So…guess this is it then.” Damon said and studied the woman.  
“End this.” Marcus whispered, shaking his head and Damon smirked.  
“I intend to old man.” He said, letting his veins protrude and Marcus took a step forward and looked to him alarmed. “Give me what I need or I’ll rip her throat out.”  
“Do that and you die vampire.” The woman growled angrily.  
“I’m dead anyway lady.” He said looking at her for a second before looking back to Marcus. “Guess everything they say about you people is true. Can’t trust you as far as I can throw you.”  
Marcus exhaled annoyed.  
“You made me a deal. My body for the spell.” Damon reminded and Marcus looked to the woman for a fleeting second. “I should’ve known never to trust a traveller. At least a witch keeps their word.”  
The woman grew tight in anger.  
“Be quiet!” The woman warned, but Marcus seemed conflicted. “You have no witch.”  
“Au contraire lady, I have the best witch – and I only need one, not an army.” He said, hinting towards the sound of all of the travellers outside and the woman moved to grab him when Marcus held her back.  
She looked to him in confusion and he sighed.  
“For the longest time people have underestimated us and told lies. No more. End the compulsion and I’ll break your spell for all the good it’ll do you.” Marcus said and Damon returned his face to its human appearance as he listened.  
“Marcus…”  
“No. He’s right, we made a deal.” Marcus advised, but she didn’t look happy.  
“I have another condition.” Damon said and Marcus’s expression turned to intrigue. “I want to be with…my mate.”  
“It’s going to be consumed by the water. There’s nothing you can do to stop it!” The woman said angrily and Damon blinked slowly in acceptance.  
“I know.” He mumbled, losing some of his bravado.  
“You want to be with him.” Marcus guessed and Damon avoided their eyes but nodded. “You’ll be consumed into the life around us.”  
Damon nodded and looked down at the sleeping girl’s face.  
“You won’t be aware anymore. You won’t cross over to the other side.” Marcus added, watching his movements closely. “Why would you want that?”  
“If I can’t be with him, then I don’t want to be anywhere.” Damon said and Marcus felt an unexpected amount of pity for him.  
“Fine by me.” The woman said, nodding. “No fighting us or we’ll make you watch as his body is consumed and then just kill you.”  
Damon looked at her for a few seconds silently, before nodding his head and looking to Marcus.  
“Your word, on her life.” Damon indicated to the girl in his arms and Marcus stepped closer and knelt down to face him.  
“You have my word, on her life.”  
Damon searched his eyes for a second and then nodded again, tilting the girl’s face to his and whispering to her to awake.  
She seemed not to move at first and Marcus touched her, looking to Damon fearfully. Finally, she exhaled and opened her eyes slowly. Marcus called her name anxiously and stroked her cheek and she looked to him.  
“Don’t be afraid.” Damon compelled and the girl sat up slowly, aided by his movements and stood with the help of her father.  
“Are you ok?” Marcus cupped her face as Damon sank back and watched the woman.  
“I’m fine. I feel fine. What happened?” The girl asked, bamboozled by Marcus’s kisses to her face and embrace.  
She patted his back, looking to the other woman and tried to remember. Marcus pulled back to search her face with tears in his eyes.  
“Dad what’s wrong?” She asked and he looked behind her to Damon.  
She turned around to look and seemed to remember as she fell back and tried to distance herself from him. Damon looked at her sadly and cleared his throat to get their attention.  
“Your word.” He reminded and Marcus pulled the girl behind him. “I need to see him.”  
Marcus motioned for the woman to take his daughter away to safety and they left the tent, the girl looking back at him in confusion. Marcus extended his hand out and Damon took it, being pulled to his feet.  
“Your spell seems to be wearing off.” Marcus commented. “You had stopped caring.”  
Damon didn’t respond, preparing himself for seeing Stefan’s body again for the last time. Hopefully Giuseppe’s plan was still in place and Stefan was living out his life in that other world, unawares. Hopefully with no more interference from him, Stefan would cross over into a better place. He’d be safe. Death for him wouldn’t be as kind. He knew that without any doubt now.  
They walked out of the tent with Damon in the lead. Stefan’s body was lying on the ground, rousing gradually. Damon blurred over to it, startling the travellers into grabbing for weapons, but Marcus held out his hands to stop them attacking. After a few seconds they seemed to realise that all that Damon cared about was the body anyway.   
He knelt down onto the ground and scooped Stefan’s body into his arms, holding his face to his neck and kissing his hair.  
I love you little blood machine. I’m sorry I couldn’t bring you home. I tried. Pain. Heartbreak. Longing. Love…  
“This is the last time we are going to die for each other brother.” He mumbled with a sad smile in his voice.  
Stefan’s body stirred against him as the bones in his neck began to reset and he pulled back and kissed his forehead. He wouldn’t kiss the lips, even as the body arched up to meet him – they were under grandma’s control. He pulled back and sat on his heels, looking to Marcus, now standing beside him.  
“The spell.” He croaked and Marcus gave a small nod of his head and motioned behind him.  
Damon looked down to Stefan again, seeing Eve behind his eyes and he closed his. He didn’t want to see her. Andrea appeared at Marcus’s side with the bowl of Damon’s blood and the stone and they began to chant together as the others gathered around to watch.  
Alpha!  
Damon opened his eyes again and looked around.  
I’m coming. We are coming! Distract them. Worry. Urgency.  
Damon’s eyes widened and he felt torn. He needed this spell broken. If Nathan interfered it wouldn’t happen.  
No, Nathan stay back! They’re breaking our spell!  
Marcus seemed to notice the look of anxiety in Damon’s unguarded expression and he scanned the woods with his eyes. No sooner had he begun to do so, when suddenly there was movement whirling passed him. He fell back in shock and the others kicked into defensive stances, reaching for weapons. Chaos broke out and Marcus was thrown onto the ground as his tribe began to run for their lives. Marcus looked around trying to figure out what was happening when he realised the Hybrids’ body was gone. It had moved.  
He panicked and looked for his weapons, noticing Damon still sitting where he had been before. They locked eyes for a few seconds and Marcus realised that he wasn’t going anywhere. He wanted the spell broken and he was going to do what he could to ensure that it was. He wasn’t going to fight.  
“Help us or there won’t be any of us left to break this.” Marcus begged, knowing without a doubt that the hybrid would kill them all within minutes without them having access to their magic properly.  
Damon’s veins protruded and he stood and blurred away towards the whirling colour that moved around, throwing his people to the ground. On the ground next to him, the original wolf was fighting her vervain-laced ropes and she was calling to him for aid.  
“He will kill all of you, destroy him now!” She roared and he was torn. “Feed him to the water!!”  
That was much easier said than done. They’d have to be able to actually grab him and he was moving so fast they didn’t stand a chance, but Damon could perhaps. Marcus looked around, trying to spot him as the out of focus blur of colours mingled together. Black hair, Damon’s hair was jet black so he was the darker shape then. They seemed to be struggling wildly as the travellers ran, grabbing the children crying and screaming.  
“Release me!!” The wolf shouted and Marcus looked to her again in time to see her eyes roll into her head as she screamed in pain.  
He gasped, hearing other screams of torment and looked around to see the hybrid and Damon finally back in human reaction time. They both fell to the ground screaming and holding their heads and Marcus stood up, his skin prickling. A young woman appeared out of the woods with her hand held out in front of her. A witch. Damon’s witch?  
Angela, the tribe leader, was wounded on the ground but alive and she tried to chant a protection spell as she watched Bonnie approach. Witches were no friends to travellers and yet this witch was friends with a vampire. Perhaps she was different.   
He stood up, holding his hands out in a gesture of peace and she looked to him. Another woman appeared behind her and blurred towards the hybrid. More vampires. Oh god, this was going to be a massacre and they had children here. What had he led them into?  
“Everybody stop!” Marcus shouted and the young witch looked to him again.  
She nodded at him respectively and he nodded back, before lowering her hand. The screaming vampires deflated, exhausted on the ground. Two others ran from the woods now, a man and a woman. Who were all these people? What interest did they have in this?  
“We’re not here for war.” Bonnie said aloud, looking to Marcus. “We are not your enemies.”  
“No! She works for Klaus!” Eve shouted and Marcus looked to Damon.  
Damon rolled onto his side, looking towards Bonnie. Nathan ran over to him to help him up as Beth stroked sweat away from Klaus’s forehead.  
“You can’t be here. It’s too dangerous.” Klaus coughed and Beth hushed him.  
“Do something!!” Eve shouted, trying to break free again and Marcus looked to her.  
“I will.” He answered and kicked her with his foot, into the water.  
She screamed as she plunged under and Damon cried out in horror. Marcus looked to him regretfully.  
“She’s the most dangerous one here. I’m sorry. Your mate is gone.” He advised and Damon sagged against Nathan’s side and hung his head.  
He’d wanted to carry Stefan’s body into the water with him so they could be in each other’s arms. He wept silently.  
“What’s happening?” Nathan asked, as Bonnie stared at the swamp water which seemed to be frothing like a fermenting bowl of soup.  
“The water eats the dead. She is part of the water now. It’s over.” Marcus looked to Klaus wearily.  
“No!” Klaus exhaled in torment.  
“What do you mean the water eats the dead?! Bonnie?” Beth shouted frantically and Bonnie stepped to the water side and dipped her fingers in, feeling the charge of power immediately.  
She stepped back and looked to the other travellers, who were approaching her menacingly for daring to touch it.  
“It’s not water. It’s pure energy.” She said forlorn.   
“What does that mean? What does that..?” Beth’s voice broke.  
“Stefan’s gone.” Klaus whispered, supporting her as she shook her head and looked from one face to another.  
“No.” She whispered. “No!” She cried out and blurred to water, jumping in to retrieve his body as everyone screamed in horror.  
“Elizabeth!!!” Klaus screamed and moved to the water edge, ripping at his hair. “Beth…” he gasped and Bonnie swallowed back tears.  
“Help her! Get her out of there!!” Klaus turned to Marcus, his full vampire face on and the travellers began to grab for their weapons again. “I will kill every last one of you.”  
“Klaus.” Bonnie said quietly but in command and he looked to her as tears dripped from his cheeks. “It’s too late. There’s nothing they can do.”  
“There must be a spell.” He said, trying to appear threatening but failing miserably and she exhaled and shook her head.  
“Then you’ll all die for this. Every one of you!!” He screamed and whirled around eyeballing all of them.  
Nathan held Damon to him, feeling him sag and tilted his face up to his. Any moment now Damon’s body would start to die. His mate’s body was gone, therefore the bond broken and now Damon would have a painful death.  
I’m sorry alpha.  
He swallowed, unable to think of the loss of Stefan just yet as all of his energy went into making Damon look at him.  
Alpha. The bond is broken.  
Damon gave a sad smirk and sat down, pulling Nathan with him. Klaus moved amongst the travellers, demanding they undo whatever spell they had done to prime the water for consumption. He became violent, causing some to flee once more as Bonnie tried to stop him with her magic. Nathan held Damon close to him as chaos erupted once more. Damon merely looked to the ground under him and stared. He’d given up.  
The scream of a baby roused him and he looked towards the sound, seeing his little Vida strapped around Bonnie’s back in a papoose, as Bonnie tried to hold Klaus at bay with a brain haemorrhage, whilst keeping her body and that of Vida’s back from any danger. He jumped to his feet instantly and tore Vida form her back, startling Bonnie enough to knock her onto her knees on the ground.  
Vida screamed in fear and Damon looked around for an escape. He had to get his angel out of here. What was she even doing here? He made to run towards a section of the woods, which he thought was the way he’d come in, when Marcus noticed him and ran in pursuit.  
“Alpha!” Nathan shouted frantic at being unable to explain the plan, but Klaus’s continual slaying of the travellers around him as they tried to jump on him and drag him to the water, diverted his attention.  
Beth was gone. Stefan was gone and now there was nothing for it but to end Klaus too. Klaus would have no mercy on anyone now that Beth was gone. He’d blame everyone but himself for this disaster.  
Nisha joined in in the struggle, helping Bonnie to her feet so she could subdue Klaus once more and he felt torn between following after Damon and Marcus or going to her aid. Now that every vampire except Klaus was gone, the travellers seemed to change their strategy – half began to drag Klaus to the water and the other half began to enclose around Bonnie. As far as they were concerned, a witch was just as much an enemy as the hybrid.  
Nathan wished with all his might that he could become his wolf self and protect them, but he couldn’t, so he ran headfirst towards them to defend them as much as he could.  
Damon blurred as fast as he could, holding Vida close to his chest. His body would start to cramp soon and he had to get her as far away as possible. He’d never forgive them for bringing her right into the arms of danger. He felt his veins tug on him and he cried out and stumbled, landing on one knee as he tried to stay upright. His veins pulled on him like a puppet and he growled in rage as he turned around to look for Marcus. That clever bastard was using the old compass spell to drag him back. It felt as though his arms and legs weren’t under his control anymore as he stumbled back the way he’d came, fighting it as Vida wailed on.  
After a few minutes of cursing and trying to stop his legs from walking, he saw him and hissed at him angrily.  
“I’m going to rip your head off!” he warned and Marcus looked to Vida confused but confident.  
“Heel.” He motioned with his hand and Damon roared in outrage as he got down onto his knees. “Give me the child.”  
“You’ll have to kill me!”   
Marcus stepped forward and Damon began to lose his bravado. Marcus was going to take her, his angel and there was nothing that he was going to be able to do to stop him. He began to pant, trying to think of a way to fight being held a prisoner by his own body, when he heard a woman’s voice call to Marcus. No!   
“No!” he spat but with fear growing in his tone and Marcus looked around behind him in surprise to see Sleeping Beauty run up behind him.  
Damon looked to her, catching his breath and trying to test his muscles and she stared at Vida, wide eyed.  
“Don’t touch her!” Damon spat.  
“What is she?” Marcus returned his attention to him again and Damon refused to answer. “Wolf?”  
“Go to hell!” he growled and Vida choked on her tears and reached for his face.  
“Daaaaaa!” She cried and Damon closed his eyes in defeat as Marcus stepped a step forward and stared at her more intensely.  
“Oh my god.” Marcus exhaled and Damon looked down at Vida’s tear stained face, losing his remaining fight.  
She reached up to his face again and he kissed her fingers, lowering his face to hers as he cooed at her, trying not to weep.  
“She’s…that’s not possible.” Marcus said shakily and the girl moved closer to Damon to get a better look.  
Damon snapped his fangs at her to warn her to keep her distance.  
“But she is.” The young woman said and subconsciously held her hand to her stomach, thinking of her own baby.  
“How?” Marcus asked and Damon rocked Vida, trying to comfort her.  
“The wolf. Breeding energy. The spell went wrong and we…we were left with…life.” Damon said, his words stuttering as he tired.  
“But if you are fertile…then you can’t be…” Marcus paused and Damon felt the atmosphere around him charge.  
He looked up at Marcus to see a horrified look on his face.  
“Dad?” the girl said and Marcus turned around and began to run back towards the swamp as fast as he could.  
Damon felt his body release from Marcus’s hold and he stood up confused, looking to the girl. They looked at each other unsure and then both began to run back the way they’d come. Damon tucked Vida safely into his chest and held her there as he blurred back in time to see Stefan and Beth climb out of the swamp coughing and spluttering. He stopped and stood rigidly, unable to believe his eyes as his heart thundered. Stefan was alive!  
“Grab her! They can’t be consumed!” Marcus called out and all of those struggling with Klaus looked over alarmed. “Grab her!”  
Eve grinned, looking insane as she lifted her hands and sent all of the travellers flying backwards through the air. What the hell?! Damon’s heart froze. Vida gurned unhappily and Eve looked over to him with bloodthirst in her eyes.  
She’s stronger now. She’s going to kill all of us!  
He channelled to Beth, Nathan and Klaus and Klaus lunged for her, knocking Beth back into the water again by accident, in his attempt to gain control over Eve. They fought viciously, everyone staring on helpless and afraid. Damon’s mouth fell open as he watched Klaus struggle. She couldn’t be stronger than Klaus was, could she? No one was. No one. He shook his head as Klaus began to channel fear and horror too.  
“The spell, break the connection!” Damon shouted at Marcus, who was by now holding his daughter in fear. “It might weaken her!”  
Marcus didn’t hold out much hope for that but began to chant and the other travellers began to follow suit. There was no use in even running from here now. She would find them all. One by one they held hands as Marcus grabbed the bowl of Damon’s blood, which was almost empty as it had been tossed onto the ground in the struggling.  
“The stone!” Marcus gasped. “The stone!”  
Damon frowned. The stone that had been part of the boulder at the water edge – the stone that had held the power from that original spell. Where was it? Damon channelled to Nathan urgently and Nathan began to search the ground as Klaus cried out and panted at the exertion of holding Eve at bay. They didn’t have time for this!  
Damon looked around for Bonnie, crying out when he saw that she was unconscious and bleeding in Nisha’s arms. No. They needed her if they were going to get through this.  
“Here!” Marcus’s daughter cried out, putting the stone into the bowl and Damon blurred to them both, biting his wrist open to add more blood to the mix.  
Nathan rushed over and slit his arm too, pouring his in to add to it and the contents glowed once more. The chanting grew louder and more in sync around them and they stepped back and turned to look towards Eve. She growled and flicked her eyes to them, distracted enough for Klaus to lunge in and bite into her neck with his fangs. She cried out, thrashing at him and he crunched hard.  
Damon shouted out for him to stop before he took Stefan’s precious head off and Klaus pushed her to the ground as she screamed and flailed. The chanting of the travellers became more intense and spooky, they sounded like a cult and it gave Damon the shivers. Slowly Eve began to weaken and Damon breathed a breath of relief as it appeared to be having an effect. She began to fade, lowering her arms and ceasing to fight and Beth climbed out next to her, collapsing onto the ground beside the swamp, coughing once again but alive and definitely not consumed.  
Klaus released Eve’s neck and looked to her, checking for any more resistance. She appeared to be weak again and he looked over to Beth. Beth seemed to jolt and gasped, her eyes widening and he stood up to reach for her when he felt a jolt too. Nathan squeezed Damon’s arm in response as both of them were almost knocked backwards by what felt like an electric shock. They took deep breaths and looked to each other when Vida wailed and kicked her legs. Was it the spell breaking? Were they disconnected to grandma now?  
Damon mentally scanned his body, trying to sense anything different but everything felt the same.  
Ok. No pain.  
Beth channelled to him and he nodded, looking to Marcus as the travellers continued their chant still. Then Marcus’s daughter swooned and Marcus caught her. Damon’s heart began to thrum as he stared at her. Marcus looked to her confused and then to Damon.  
“Who’s the father?” Damon asked and Marcus frowned. “Ask her.”  
Marcus grimaced and cupped her face as she recovered.  
“Who is the father?” he whispered to her and she looked at him remorsefully with large eyes full of emotion. “No.” He whispered and she nodded.  
“What’s happening?” Nathan asked and Damon looked to Eve.  
“I think her baby daddy was your little human mating partner.” Damon said and Nathan shot a look of utter disbelief at the young girl.  
“What?!”  
“Oh god.” Marcus mumbled and looked to Eve. “It was never the help of travellers magic that helped her earth herself in that body. It was her link to the foetus growing inside you.” Marcus told his daughter.  
“What do you mean?” Klaus wiped sweat and blood from his face, but still remained on top of Eve, holding her down in case she tried to struggle again.  
“Half traveller, half human potential.” Damon mumbled, rocking Vida absent-mindedly.  
“She accessed all of the power of the source through the bloodline now connected to yours.” Marcus said.  
“Two sets of energy is better than one.” Damon whispered.  
“Is the connection between both broken now?” Nathan asked, looking over to Nisha and Bonnie worriedly as Nisha focussed on performing first aid on the cuts and bruises to Bonnie’s head.  
“She’s the reason.” Angela realised and looked to Marcus. “The drain on the source. She…she caused this.”  
Marcus thought on that and nodded. The timing fit.   
“I’m so sorry daddy.” Marcus looked down at his daughter and shook his head shushing her. “He was so afraid and he hadn’t done anything to hurt anyone. We…connected. It just happened once and then…he…he got so weak. He was a good person.”  
“Our energy got her to where she could wait for an opportunity and then she jumped on it when it came.” Damon mumbled.  
“If we hadn’t captured that poor boy, she’d never have been able to connect to such power.” Marcus sighed.  
“Enough sentimentality!” Klaus snapped. “How do we destroy her once and for all?”  
“The water can’t consume that body because it can reproduce.” Marcus explained and the other travellers gasped in disgust and surprise. “Their bodies can create life so they are not fully dead. The water can’t transform them.”  
“So figure out another way!” Klaus demanded and stood up, moving to Beth to stroke her head and cup her face.  
She smiled up at him and rose to hold him.  
“Kill the body.” Angela said and Nathan shouted for them to stop.  
Everyone looked at him as Nisha and he exchanged glances.  
“There has to be another way. We can bring Stefan’s soul back. We have a way.” He said and Damon almost fell over at the declaration.  
“How?!” Damon grabbed at him desperately and Nathan hinted towards Bonnie.   
“Heal her quick.” He advised and Damon began to move towards her.  
“Wait.” Marcus said. “How did she plan to do this? What kind of magic?” He moved to Bonnie now.  
“There’s a spirit communicating with the mated babies. Bonnie thought she could astral project to where the spirit was and find Stefan, dragging him back through with her.”  
“That’s impossible.” Marcus shook his head as Damon looked from one to the other, his adrenaline charging.  
“She said it was risky but she was sure she could do it.” Nathan joined them.  
“We don’t have time for this Marcus.” Angela reminded him and Marcus rubbed his face and tried to think. “We need to get rid of her and the easiest way is by killing the vessel.”  
“Enough.” Klaus growled in warning and Angela took a step back.  
Damon bit into his wrist and fed Bonnie some of his blood as Marcus watched, grimacing. Bonnie roused slowly, blinking hard from her concussion.  
“Bonnie.” Damon whispered and she looked to him. “Can you get Stefan back?”  
“Yes.” She said a little dazed but beginning to sit up.  
“Can you still do it Bonnie? Do you need to rest?” Nisha asked, noting how ill she still looked despite the blood and Bonnie squeezed her eyes closed and grimaced in pain.  
“There’s no time. If this is going to happen, it has to be now.” Marcus said hurriedly, feeling the restlessness of the rest of the tribe.  
“I can…I can do it.” She sighed and tried to stand up, falling backwards as she did so and Damon began to lose heart.  
Nisha shook her head sadly.  
“She can’t. She took such a blow to the head. If she tries to do this and gets stuck on the other side…” she began and Damon swallowed bile and felt his heart ache.  
There was only so much he could take and having this last bid to get Stefan back fail, would kill him. Vida gurned against him and looked up above her, breaking into a smile and reaching upwards. Damon looked at her, his eyes drooping with the strain of his emotion.  
“I can do it.”  
Damon turned around to look at Klaus.  
“What?” Nathan asked.  
“I can do it in her place.” Klaus said confidently.  
“What are you talking about?” Nisha huffed.  
“I’ve learned quite a few things in my years - the ability to astral project being one of them.” He stated and Beth squeezed him desperately.  
“You can astral project like Bonnie suggested?” Marcus asked and Klaus nodded.  
“But…” Nisha sighed, “You can’t get into Vida’s brain like Bonnie can. Only a witch can…”  
“You can channel!” Nathan realised and nodded at Klaus. “You can see her thoughts like the rest of us can.”  
“She’s a baby, she can’t channel yet can she?” Beth asked and Damon looked down at Vida’s face.  
“It’s worth a try.” He said and walked over to Klaus, handing Vida to him.  
“I’ll bring him back.” Klaus vowed to him and Damon stood back, watching them nervously.  
Klaus closed his eyes and tried to focus in on the connection between the mates. Vida may be young but she must be in the vibration somewhere. She giggled and reached up and he exhaled and calmed his mind as though he was in deep meditation. A few images passed through his mind and he relaxed himself further, feeling his limbs vibrate. He hadn’t astral projected for a while but vibrations in the hands and feet generally indicated the beginning of the doing so. He just needed to find the right connected to Vida’s mind.  
A young black woman popped into his mind and he paused, watching as he felt love emanate from her. She was cooing. This must be the spirit. She was undoubtedly talking to a child. He reached out with his mind as though his spirit retained its humanoid form and could grasp with fingers and felt himself vibrate with more intensity. He exhaled deep and low in his lungs and let himself go. He felt the tell-tale sign of being drawn out of his body through the top of his head.  
He kept his eyes on the woman, drawing closer until he felt air force into his lungs. He sucked in a deep breath and felt a jolt. He exhaled and looked around. There seemed to be nothing around him except whiteness, but not fog, not clouds or white walls, just whiteness. He frowned and Vida giggled. He looked down to see her still in his arms. He rocked her, cooing and she looked around wide eyed just like him.  
“I think we just found where your daddy is.” He said and kissed her forehead. “Let’s go get him.”


	47. Chapter 47

Chapter 47 TH

“I’m sorry.” Stefan wept, holding his head in his hands as another round of torment ended.  
Time didn’t seem to be measurable here. He could have been here for a hundred years already and been none the wiser. At first it had been about physical pain – they’d ripped his limbs off as he screamed again and again and again until they’d bored of that. Then all of the souls he was responsible for having dispatched from their lives, entered him making him re-live their last terror filled moments of their encounters with him.  
This place was supposed to be for healing, a place that existed partially within his own mind so that he could live out what he thought he deserved, but as time went on and the memories became too vivid for his imagination to have created, he realised that there was some element of contact between he and these souls. They were real and they were here and so were their memories.  
He held himself, shaking and waiting for the next horror to behold him, when he heard a baby crying. He wiped his eyes with his arm and looked around, afraid of what he would see. The forest had dimmed to a shade of dark grey so that everything now looked more like the set of a theatre pantomime – still, fake and without density. His eyes struggled to make out shapes and differentiate amongst this colour. The colour reflected the state of his mind, of his heart.  
The baby cried again and he stood up shakily, searching.  
“What is that?” He whispered to the faceless voice that had remained here, taunting him as the arms of his victims had ripped and torn at him inside of the earth.  
“The depths of your evil.” The voice answered, emotionless and he exhaled, weeping silently again.  
He looked down at the ground and groaned. The baby’s cries became more insistent and he couldn’t ignore them. They seemed to fill the whole of the fake forest as though the baby was coming nearer to him, amplified by proximity. He put his hands over his ears and tried to shut it out, but it was as though the crying was inside of his own head – it probably was.  
He opened his eyes again and looked wearily to a small place of light that had opened up, as though someone had shone a light no bigger than a flashlight down from the sky. He moved towards it, dragging his feet. He knew what he would find here would be horrible, but there was no escaping his mind, the depth of his self-loathing and hatred. He had to face it all if he was ever going to be able to forgive himself, to begin to make amends.  
As he got nearer he held his hand over his mouth, trying not to vomit as he saw body parts strewn around a small crib. He stopped short and closed his eyes again.  
“No.” he whispered, swallowing heavily. “I didn’t do this.”  
The crib rocked slightly and the baby wailed inside and yet, he knew it wasn’t alive. He knew in his bones that whatever was in the crib was some foul, unimaginable thing and he couldn’t take seeing it.  
“I never tore apart any babies.” He croaked and the voice began to chuckle in its usual mocking manner. “I didn’t!” He shouted angrily.  
“Such a short memory.” The voice heckled and he shook his head and clenched his fists.  
More light appeared around his feet and he stepped back to see what looked like a small wooden road sign on the ground. It had been knocked over and trampled with dirt. He bent down to pick it up and rubbed at it in curiosity – the baby momentarily silent as he did so. The sign was filthy and he struggled to make out the letters.   
“What..?” he began to whisper when he realised what the word said and he dropped the sign onto the ground gasping.  
Monterey  
“No! I can’t re-live that…please!” He cried out, stepping further back.  
“This is your mind.” The voice reminded him and he stepped back and looked up at the colourless sky.  
“And who are you?!” He shouted angrily. “The devil?”  
“Yes.”  
“No you are not!!” he roared. “I am not in hell! I am in my own mind. This place is for me, made by me!”  
“Then you tell me.”   
The voice sounded bored and Stefan wished it would materialise into the shape of a person so he could put his hands around its throat and squeeze, but what would be the point in that? The voice wasn’t his enemy – he was. He had always been his own worst enemy.  
“Me.” He said shakily and looked to the crib again. “You’re me. My conscience.”  
“Bingo.” The voice said and he swallowed bile as he looked back to the crib.  
He moved towards it and peered inside, surprised to see Vida there. He gasped and lifted her up, cradling her and checking her little body for any wounds or pain and she gurned and reached for his face.  
“Baby, baby…” he chanted as he kissed her and held her to him in relief. “My angel.”  
He looked down at her face again, tears welling in his eyes as he realised she wasn’t really here. This wasn’t real. He frowned and stroked the fine black hairs on her head.  
“Why?” He looked up to the sky confused. “Why is she here?”  
“You tell me.” The voice said and he held her close in fear. “Maybe you regret allowing her to live.”  
“Never!” he spat and rocked her. “She’s the best thing I’ve ever done. The only pure thing I can lay claim to.”  
“Clearly not.”  
“No.” He shook his head and smiled at her as she grabbed his fingers and sucked on them. “She’s my angel.”  
She bit into his finger with her fangs and he yelped in surprise and withdrew them from her. She squirmed, reaching for them as he sucked them into his mouth and realised that she’d drawn blood from one of his fingers. He winced and watched as her eyes tingled and her fangs protruded. He hated seeing her vampire face. It looked horrific on a baby - something so innocent and pure. He shook his head, realising now why she was here. She began to wail and he lay her back into the crib and turned his back.  
“Funny looking angel.” The voice commented and Stefan’s shoulders sunk.  
“She can’t help it.” Stefan shook his head sadly. “She’s been made that way.”  
“Because of you.” The voice pointed out and he closed his eyes. “She’s a demon because you are. A tiny killing machine with no restraint.”  
“No, she’s not a monster. She’ll never be what I am. I’ll make sure of that.”  
“Good luck with that!” The voice chuckled darkly. “You’ve just created a monster that could eat the world.”  
“No!” he spat and shook his head. “She’s an innocent!”  
“You know you should never have done it. You know you have no idea what she’ll become. You feel guilt because you know you should have ended her before she was even born!”  
“No!” He growled and held his face in his hands. “No, I could never…” he ran out of steam as Vida quietened in her crib behind him.  
“Admit you’ve thought about it. You’ve worried that you should never have birthed her.”  
Stefan hung his head and began to weep silently.  
“Too late now.”  
“She’s my baby. She’s my life.” He whispered in grief.  
“You’re afraid she’ll be a ripper, that she’ll be a monster.”  
He crumpled to his knees and took a few ragged breaths. The voice stayed silent, waiting and Stefan placed his hands on the ground in front of him as he nodded slowly.  
“You still want to kill her.”  
“No! Now that is not coming from me!” Stefan’s head shot up and he growled angrily. “I’d sooner kill myself than hurt her.”  
“You’re hurting her already – by failing. Over and over again you fail. You’re hopeless. You can’t protect her!” The voice accused.  
“No…”  
“You can’t even have a heat without almost killing Damon, what chance have you got keeping her alive, of teaching her how not to be like you?”  
“Please…” he wept and looked to the ground again.  
“You kill or get everyone else killed Stefan. You should have killed yourself a long time ago and saved everyone so much pain.”  
Stefan wept silently for a little while, trying to breathe and recover for what the voice had in store next for him. The crib disappeared along with the ghost of Vida and he stood up again. He heard some strange sounds behind him and he turned slowly, his body clenching in anticipation. The sounds were unmistakeably carnal in nature and he turned fully to see two naked bodies writhing against each other.  
This was a new tactic. He frowned and moved closer, unable to discern who he was watching when he realised he watching himself. He paused, realising who the partner was also.  
“What the hell?” He whispered, frowning. “Nathan?”  
He was watching he and Nathan having sex.  
“What’s the point of this?” he asked the voice.  
“You tell me.”  
“Of course I feel guilty that Nathan and I slept together, but we were animals. It was a spell. I don’t torture myself over it.” He crossed his arms and looked away.  
“Then why are you thinking about it?”  
He closed his eyes as he heard his own voice begging Nathan to move faster.  
“It was good. When we slept together it was really good.” He admitted.  
“Better than Damon?” The voice probed.  
“No, but I liked it. There.” He said finally and opened his eyes again, expecting the figures to disappear. “I admit that I liked it and I’ve thought about it from time to time.”  
The figures didn’t disappear and he held himself, waiting.  
“You can’t fool me. I am you.”  
Stefan exhaled, annoyed and jumped when he felt an arm slide around his stomach from behind. He looked back in fear to see the bluest of blue eyes looking back at him.  
“Damon?” He gasped and turned around to hold his shoulders.  
Damon smiled. He looked good, healthy and real. Stefan touched his face, wanting so badly for him to be real.  
Damon pulled him into him, kissing his neck and making a pleased humming sound in the back of his throat. It had felt like hundreds of years had passed since Stefan had seen him last, smelt him, felt his body against his and even though he knew this wasn’t real he pulled Damon against him and drank in his scent. Damon squeezed him and pulled back to ravage his mouth with desperate kisses and Stefan opened his mouth to each one with a vigour he’d almost forgotten he possessed.  
Each kiss grew more passionate and Damon began to move them backwards until Stefan felt an object behind him, knocking into the back of his knees to make him fall onto his back. It was a bed. He looked around in surprise to see that they were at home in their own bed.  
Damon’s clothing disappeared and Stefan touched his own chest, realising his were gone too. Damon climbed on top of him and resumed their kissing and Stefan opened his legs wide to accommodate him. He felt too turned on to question why this was happening. All of his senses were focussed solely on Damon’s body sliding against his, Damon’s fingers in his hair, Damon’s tongue caressing against his own.  
He rolled them over and took control, biting Damon’s bottom lip and kissing into his neck as Damon gyrated under him, making the small moaning sounds he always did when Stefan scented him during sex. Stefan smiled against his skin as he licked down to his nipples and began to tease one. He felt unbelievably excited and hard in his groin. He opened Damon’s legs gently, lining up their sex and pushing inside as Damon tilted his head back in enjoyment. Stefan began to move and licked up the long pale column of throat. There was no thinking, no reason, no haste, just he and his mate.  
The emotion and his concentration on making Damon’s toes curl, was so intense that he didn’t realise they were not alone until he felt teeth scrape the back of his neck. He paused what he was doing for a second and then felt himself being filled from behind.  
He paused his rocking into Damon’s body beneath him and gasped, turning his head to look behind him when he saw Nathan.  
“What..?” he squeaked and Damon whispered his name.  
He looked down to Damon in panic, when Damon reached up and pulled him down to his mouth, allowing Nathan better access to begin moving inside of him. He tried to break the kiss and stop what was happening, but Damon’s tongue was insistent and Nathan hit his prostate, making him gasp loudly. He’d never had sex with any men before Damon, let alone two at the same time and his brain melted, unable to process how to respond to being inside Damon, yet being taken too.  
“Uhh!” He moaned and Nathan kissed his back and slid his arms between them, following Damon’s skin on his thighs up to his manhood, pumping it.  
Damon moaned into Stefan’s mouth and rocked against Nathan’s hand and Stefan was trapped between them, unable to move as all three felt the bliss of being connected.  
“Wait…stop…” he broke his mouth away from Damon’s, trying not to enjoy every touch and caress from both of them. “I don’t want this.” He whispered and the voice chuckled.  
“Yeah you really look conflicted.” The voice said sarcastically and Stefan moaned again and dropped his forehead onto Damon’s chest as Nathan sped up his thrusting.

He pushed Damon down against the mattress and half turned to Nathan, pushing him backwards until the figure stopped moving and pulled out of him confused.   
“No.” He said confidently. “There’s no part of me that would ever do this, that would do this to Damon.”  
“Doesn’t mean you haven’t fantasized. You must feel guilt and loathing if this is happening.”  
He shook his head again and looked back to the figure of Damon, who was now looking at him grieved and confused, reaching out for him.  
“Damon.” He whispered. “Damon is everything.”  
He gathered the figure of Damon into his arms and stroked his face.  
“You aren’t Damon though.” He said and the figure leaned in to kiss him.  
Stefan stopped him and cupped his face.  
“I feel guilty because I find Nathan attractive. I know that if we had met under different circumstances that I’d want him, that I’d sleep with him gladly. If we had been compatible as animals during that spell I would have been happy with him as my mate.” He admitted, choking on the words as the pain of admitting it affected him. “Damon would never be able to understand that because he still doesn’t feel like he deserves to be loved. I think sometimes he still believes that I stay with him because of our biology and not out of choice.”  
“Hmn.” The voice sounded.  
“That’s the thing about him. He feels everything with such force, undiluted. He sees things as black and white when there are so many colours. He’d never be able to understand how I feel.”   
He whispered, releasing the Damon figure and moving back from him, withdrawing from inside of him.  
“I’ll always be attracted to Nathan.” He commented and the Nathan figure stood up and looked to him, desire making his manhood rise.  
Stefan looked to it and felt himself blush.  
“I’ve thought about having sex with both of them, having everything.” He admitted and closed his eyes. “But I never would.”  
The Nathan figure faded and he opened his eyes again.  
“I love you.” He spoke to the Damon figure and it disappeared.  
His clothing re-appeared and he brushed himself down, feeling more confident.  
“I have a lot of regrets and enough things to repent for, for a hundred lifetimes.” He said to the voice. “But everyone does in their own mind.”  
“That’s a convenient get out clause.” The voice mocked, but finally Stefan was beginning to understand.  
“Maybe.” He agreed. “But…I’m not afraid anymore.” He realised and looked around. “No hell could be any worse than what I’ve put myself through here. There’s no harsher judge for me than myself.”  
“You seriously think that this is over?” The voice asked incredulously. “That having your body mutilated a few times, weeping like an infant and showing some small indication of self-proclaimed wisdom is enough to make up for what you’ve done?”  
“No.” He said, thinking. “It’ll never be enough. But…” he looked around and sighed. “I’m done here. I’m ready for whatever happens next.”  
“You’re a moron Stefan. You’re going to burn in hell forever.”  
“Then I will, but I’m not going to keep chasing my tail in here. I will never be able to forgive myself, because I need my guilt.” He realised.  
“What are you talking about?”   
“This feeling, this guilt…” he held his hand over his chest, “…it keeps me straight. It stops me every time I go to make a bad decision that would have me repeating my mistakes. My guilt and memory of all of my horrors, helps me be a better person because it draws a line in the sand.”  
His mind was reeling as he realised he was having one of the most important epiphanies of his life.  
“I can’t forgive myself because I need to remember and feel guilt to know that I am not the person who did those horrors anymore.” He whispered, noticing the colour of the environment changing colour to a lighter shade.  
“I’ll remember and I’ll feel guilt forever, but it’s ok.” He said.  
The voice remained silent and he gave a chuckle as he felt some metaphorical weight lifted from his shoulders.  
“I’m not perfect, but I’ll keep trying until I can’t anymore.” He smiled. “Because I want to be good.”  
The area around him began to change back to white and he spilled tears of joy down his cheeks as he realised he had done it, he had faced his demons and emerged ready to cross over. The cry of a baby startled him out of his joyous thoughts and he looked down to see the crib again. He cringed when he saw Vida with her tiny fangs still extended.  
“I do worry that she could become a monster. Everyone can become a monster, it’s in us all.” He swallowed, refusing to lift her up as she screamed for him. “She has to find her own way, I can’t control it, but I can teach her and love her in the hopes that she’ll be a good person.”  
He looked up to the colourless sky and took a deep breath.  
“I wanted to cut her out of me before she could grow, but it was because I thought she could be a monster. She was new and terrifying and impossible and I wanted her gone.” He felt tears threaten again. “I won’t apologise for feeling like that, not anymore! I felt like that because I was afraid and there’s nothing more human than that.”  
He wiped at his eyes and looked down at her.  
“The difference is that I didn’t let it control my actions. I won’t ever let it.”  
“Shame it’s all too late now.” The voice sighed and Stefan nodded.   
The crib and crying Vida disappeared.  
“Now what?” He asked.  
“Now…we die.”  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
“Wait! Stop!” Beth shouted, her eyes unable to focus on anything but the gun currently being held at Klaus’s head by Angela.  
No one moved, they were too afraid to. Damon licked his lips, testing his muscles and waiting for the minutest of opportunities to blur to the woman and rip her head off.  
“It’s not as simple as just killing the hybrid. Are you going to try and kill the rest of us too?!” Beth demanded.  
“Cousin…” Marcus said gently, putting his hands out in a placating motion.  
“Try it and I will kill as many of your tribe as I can get my teeth into!” Beth growled, her face changing in warning.  
“Stop.” Bonnie said calmly and stood up, being helped to her feet by Nisha. “No one needs to die today. We’re all on the same side.”  
“Your only interests are your own.” Angela snapped. “Mine is to protect the source at all costs.”  
“None of us are interested in the source.” Nathan said, vexed. “We just want our friends back and grandma wolf gone.”  
Despite the click of the metal of the gun against his temple, Klaus made no movement or indication that he was even aware. Damon looked to Vida nervously. She appeared to be sleeping but he knew there was more to her silence than that. If Klaus had taken her with him as he’d astral projected, then if something happened to him, would she return to her body or be left on the limbo side scared and afraid and lost forever?  
Nathan squeezed his arm, feeling his fear and desperation.  
Marcus went to Angela’s side slowly and they began to speak in a language none of them could understand. Nisha gave Bonnie a drink of water from a flask as she still seemed a little dazed, but Damon could see that the reels in her head were turning, preparing for a battle of wits.   
Nathan watched Angela and Marcus. His skin tingled in discomfort and suspicion. What was going to happen now? They’d tried to feed the mates to the water and mercifully their mutated biology had prevented that, but now what? The majority of these people clearly wanted to kill all of them and that wasn’t going to change just because Eve was the main threat. If Klaus could drag Stefan back into his body, there was no guarantee Stefan would be able to fight to take it over or keep it – just like last time.  
“Marcus.” Bonnie spoke, looking a little stronger. “We are not your enemies.”  
“So you say.” He replied and flicked his eyes over to Damon.  
“We’re only here to reclaim that body and its mate and that means we have a common goal.”  
“Which is?” Angela asked confidently.  
“To evict the original wolf from that body and dispatch her back to the other side permanently. To re-set the balance here.”  
“We don’t care about your balance.” Angela sneered, in reference to witch magic rules on the balance of elements and nature, being paramount.  
“Your magic may not come from the same place as mine does, but that doesn’t mean you can afford to upset it. Whether you want it or not, her interference with the balance of nature, has caused the depletion of your power source too. We have to work together to correct it.”  
“It’s been corrected now that she no longer has a blood connection to our tribe.” Angela said as Marcus looked behind them to the swamp contemplatively.  
“Really?” Bonnie raised an eyebrow and looked to the swamp too.  
She didn’t believe that for one second. Eve had done too much damage, had her fingers in to many pies. It had taken an immense amount of power to earth herself in Stefan’s body and to stay in it this long. Cutting her connection to it now, made her weak but it didn’t undo the damage.  
“Besides, we don’t need your help now that we have him.” Angela tightened her hold on Klaus’s arm and Beth took a step towards them in fear, looking to Vida also.  
“Daddy.” Marcus’s daughter said nervously, looking at Vida and holding her stomach and Marcus’s expression flickered ever so subtly with confliction. “That baby is like mine.”  
“No. You are traveller. This thing is a mutant.” Angela said of Vida and Marcus flicked his eyes to Damon again as Damon’s leg muscles twitched.  
“You do realise that you can’t kill the hybrid with a gun. He’s practically invincible.” Nathan said, trying to talk out the tension.  
“No. But it will put him down until we’ve dealt with the rest of you. And I’m sure it’ll suffice for this one.” She looked at Vida and Damon moved forward, being grabbed by Nathan and held back as Angela tightened her hold.  
“I saw that you’re fast but are you fast enough to save your witch and your baby vampire? One or the other but not both.” She aimed the gun towards Bonnie now too.  
Damon growled in rage, his mouth practically foaming because he knew she had him. If he saved Vida, Bonnie would be shot and then there would be no way of ensuring that if Klaus made it back with Stefan, that Stefan wouldn’t be eaten alive by Eve again.   
“You don’t have to do this.” Bonnie said calmly. “Klaus isn’t interested in your people. The only one interested in what you have here is Eve.”  
“Eve?” Angela frowned.  
“The wolf.” Marcus guessed, looking to Stefan’s body.  
Eve groaned, fighting to try and get enough strength to sit up.  
“If you just kill that body, she might have a plan B. There’s no way of knowing whether she’ll come back and try and use you again.” Nisha pointed out. “These people have been haunted by her repeatedly.”  
Nathan looked to Damon.  
We need some way of bargaining with them.  
Damon gave a small nod of agreement but he couldn’t think of what they had left to offer. They had nothing. They were completely at their mercy.  
“We can heal your wounded with vampire blood.” Nathan offered, wracking his brain. “No one needs to die here today except Eve.”  
“And contaminate ourselves? No.” Angela said and Marcus sighed in thought.  
“No one else can know where the source is.” Marcus stated and looked to Bonnie. “I’m sorry.”  
Nisha’s heart sped up in fear. Even the logical, calm minded traveller was going to finish them off.  
“Please. We’ve all lost so much.” She pleaded. “Klaus took my family from me and I’ve always wanted to see him dead. I make no judgements about your feelings towards us all – to you we are invaders, a danger to you, to your secrets, but we just want to take our wounded home and live in peace.”  
“The hybrid doesn’t forgive.” Angela reminded Marcus and he looked to Klaus, studying him. “He won’t forget the part our magic played in any of this. He has to be eliminated.”  
“Yes.” Marcus agreed, nodding.   
“But he’s helping you!” Beth hissed. “He’ll rip her spirit out for you to consume.”  
“And how exactly will he do that?” Marcus crossed his arms. “If he succeeds, he’ll simply bring back another soul to trap in that body with hers. None of us have the power to rip her out of there or control where she goes after that. She has used the very essence of our magic to seat herself inside!”  
“The water can’t consume him either! He’s like me!” Beth lied and Angela snorted.  
“No. There’s nothing in him that’s alive.” Bonnie said, breaking the tension and Beth looked to her horrified and infuriated. “He’s not like the mates. He can’t create life.”  
“Bonnie..?” Beth gasped and Bonnie stood with Nisha’s support.  
“He’s dead. Completely capable of being consumed by the source and maybe, if you’re lucky, he’d be enough to restore everything she took from you.” She paused for effect as Nathan channelled reassurance to Beth that Bonnie knew what she was doing. “Hey, it’s a big maybe, but you never know your luck.”  
“You have another suggestion?” Marcus guessed and Bonnie nodded.  
“He’s no longer a hybrid.” She said and everyone looked to her nervously at how vulnerable she was making them. “I put his curse back on him so that he’s just vampire.”  
“How?” Angela challenged.  
“Doesn’t matter how, all that you need to know is that he won’t try and break it.”  
“How can you be so sure?” Marcus squinted at her.  
“There are lives of people he loves tied to it.” She looked to Beth and Marcus and Angela chattered in their foreign tongue.  
“My magic works with the elements. In order for me to create a curse so powerful I had to tie it to an object of immense energy.” She ruffled around in her pockets and retrieved the small piece of stone that she’d used so many months ago and Marcus gasped, wide eyed.  
“The stone…” he looked to Andrea and she rushed to him with the bowl of Damon’s blood and he pulled their stone out.  
Bonnie held hers up. It was the same. Both pieces were part of the boulder at the water’s edge. Damon blinked in surprise.  
“This stone binds the most powerful creature on the planet. There’s enough power in it to be a battery for your source for hundreds of years to come.” She said and Damon licked his lips and gave a small nod with his head as he realised where she was going with this.  
“His energy is tied to the stone.” Marcus said, shaking his head in awe.  
“Yes. It’ll be as powerful as he is, for as long as he exists – growing stronger as he lives on.” She said and flicked her eyes to Beth, who was now finally in understanding of Bonnie’s tactics.  
“Why do you care whether he lives or dies?” Angela asked.  
“I just like to know what to expect. Eve has proven that dying doesn’t stop anyone from coming back and being a threat.”  
“True.” Marcus nodded, looking at Stefan’s writhing body. “It doesn’t solve the problem of how we get her out of that body though.”  
“I think I can get her out, with your help.” Bonnie extended her hand out towards him and he and Angela looked to one another. “Our magic might not be the same, but perhaps together we can be enough to draw her spirit out.”  
“Our magic isn’t compatible with yours.” Angela huffed and Marcus seemed to consider it.  
“How do we know that? Have you ever tried?” Bonnie challenged. “I’ve never met any travellers until now, so I don’t know that it won’t work.”  
“You also don’t know that it will.” Marcus pointed out and Bonnie gave a nod of agreement.  
“We don’t have another choice.” She said.  
“It could kill both of you.” Angela warned.  
“I know I’d rather risk two deaths than everyone here if we can’t work together to end this, because trust me – my friends aren’t your enemies but if you kill people they love, then even I won’t be able to stop them.” Bonnie said and Beth and Damon flashed their fangs for effect.  
Nathan moved to Nisha, taking her hand as Bonnie stepped over to Marcus and held out her hand for him again.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
“Stefan?” Klaus called out, tiring of walking around in this eternally white space.  
It was eerie and disconcerting to have nothing around them that appeared to change or have any depth. Vida was gurning now and held a piece of his shirt in her hands as she rocked her.  
“Where are you brother?” He whispered, narrowing his eyes to the brightness all around.  
Vida began to cry and he cooed to her, stroking her forehead soothingly.  
“Where’s your daddy?” He asked. “Find him little wolf.”  
He lifted her higher so that he could hold her upright. She leaned her face against his shoulder as she sniffled but then leaned back and looked around. Her eyes were wide and innocent as Klaus watched her expression, searching for any indication that she was aware of where they might be.  
“Come on little Salvatore.” He encouraged. “Where’s your daddy?”  
“Da da da daaaa…” she chirped and looked at him in query.  
He nodded amused and smiled.  
“Dadda.” He said and she babbled baby language in response. “Where’s dada?”  
She gazed off into the distance and he held his breath in hope.  
“Da!” She shouted out, sticking her fingers into her mouth as she looked ahead of them.  
Klaus moved forward, looking for any signs of…anything, but there was nothing. He exhaled and patted Vida’s back as she leaned into his shoulder again. He was a fool to think that it would be as easy as going down the rabbit hole and bumping right into Stefan. If this was some kind of limbo, then there were no limits to how vast it may be – he could spend a lifetime searching and never see another soul. This was how he had imagined limbo – not the place of fire and torture where he had been before and never wanted to return to again, but a place of confusion and emptiness. Limbo was a void, a grey area, a non-area really. So how was he expected to find one soul in its entirety?  
Vida began to cry again and he rubbed her back and kissed the side of her head. He’d never been able to astral project for very long and he didn’t have much longer. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his new ability to channel. He had no idea whether it would work out-with his body, but he had to try. He was still so new to this all.  
Stefan. Brother. Concern. Rescue.  
He sent the message out and waited for the other end of the connection to vibrate but it didn’t.  
Stefan. I am here for you. We are here to bring you home. Find me.  
He waited again, sighing when he felt nothing. Vida cried on, drooling on his shoulder now and he bounced her and looked around. He wasn’t sure how to get out of here. Normally when he wanted to return to his body it just happened. He would become aware that he wanted to go back, would feel his stomach jolt as though he was falling and wake up in his body with a start.  
This was their one shot at bringing Stefan back to his body. If he failed here then that was it. He had no doubts that the travellers would try to kill them if this took too long. Hell, he had no illusions that they weren’t trying to do so right at this moment.   
“Come on brother.” He exhaled and patted Vida as she wailed and kicked her legs.  
Then he had an idea. He cradled Vida away from his neck and lay her down on the ground. She looked up at him unhappily and cried all the more at the loss of contact with him, rolling onto her side and trying to sit up as he stepped a few steps back from her and turned his back.  
“Da daaaa, da dada…” she cried and he closed his eyes, feeling torment at having to try this.  
Never had the cries of an infant affected him as much as they had since Toby had been born. Having a baby around to care for had changed the way he saw things – many things. He’d tuned in to every sound Toby had made, every indication of displeasure or pain or need and now he couldn’t shut it off. Vida cries became ones of fear and he stepped further away to intensify that emotion. Before, she had been crying and gurning because she was confused and now her cries were that of an infant in fear and desperate for comfort.  
He exhaled slowly and focussed his mind again.  
Vida needs you Stefan. Come find her.  
Stefan walked along the white flooring, feeling the pull to do so as he relaxed and released the last of the tension from his body. He was ready. He was ready to cross over. He did feel a sense of peace. He couldn’t make up for the evils he had committed but it didn’t matter because he had faced them, acknowledged them and was willing to allow them to exist – not to fear the memories, because they had made him who he was now. The guilt of the past had created in him a better person, a person of conscience and of regret.  
The voice had quietened after his declarations of readiness and as he walked alone in an empty white world, he knew that it wouldn’t come back. It was in him now. It was him and it always had been. He had reconciled.  
He smiled as he saw a dulling of colour up ahead. He didn’t know if he would still go to hell or be able to go to heaven, but wherever he was going it wouldn’t be this empty place. The whiteness around him was enough to drive him mad, to almost facilitate him getting lost here. Anything was better than here.  
As he walked he heard sounds in the distance and he stopped to listen. More memories rearing their heads? He turned his head to hear better and made out the sounds of a baby crying. He exhaled and shook his head. No, he was done with that guilt. He had admitted his feelings and the regret it caused in him. He was done with it.  
He began walking again and the cries grew louder. They were Vida’s cries and he stared straight ahead and tried to focus on the greying area ahead.  
…brother. Here to bring you home…  
He stopped again as he heard the voice. He looked around and saw nothing and no one.  
“This is a trick.” He whispered, waiting for the voice to speak in confirmation or teasing.  
…not dead…Vida needs you..  
“Stop it!” He huffed. “This is over!”  
…find us…  
“Let me be!” Stefan shouted and looked to the area ahead.  
The grey area had become the shape of a doorway and he began running towards it, afraid that he may ruin his chances of peace if he submitted to the continuing assault on his heart. He began to pant as the door grew closer. This all had to be a trick, one last effort to keep him here in this place. He couldn’t stay in this place! He had to get out, move on!  
The door seemed to grow a little smaller and he panicked, running as fast as his legs could carry him.  
“Wait! Please! I’m ready!!” he cried out, sensing that it was his feelings and the tormenting draw of his memories that was losing him his chance to be at peace.  
He reached out to touch the grey colour, finally before it, when he heard a shout. He turned back to look, panting and saw Klaus. He narrowed his eyes in disbelief.  
“Brother! Don’t go through there!” He called out and reached his hand out.  
Stefan shook his head.  
“Brother…you’re not ready to die.” Klaus said confidently.  
“No. I’m ready. I want to be at peace.” Stefan whispered and Klaus moved closer to him.  
Was he going to grab him and drag him back to the endless number of arms who would tear at his body again? Would he have to go through everything all over again until he truly lost his mind and forgot what he was supposed to accomplish here?!  
“Stefan, please…we need you. Vida needs you.” Klaus said, now appearing worried as he noted the expression of fear of Stefan’s face.  
“No.” Stefan said softly and moved backwards to the doorway again.  
“Stefan if I have to follow you to hell I will!” Klaus growled, flashing his fangs and Stefan paused.  
It really seemed like him.  
“Stefan! I have left Vida here somewhere. Have you seen her?”  
“What?” Stefan frowned.  
“I left her lying around. Not sure where. I brought her here through a spell of Bonnie’s devising.” Klaus seemed suddenly so calm and nonchalant. “If you don’t come help me find her…her soul will be stuck here.”  
Stefan stared at him, trying to understand what was happening and Klaus turned and walked away from him casually. His heart beat loudly as he watched him retreat. This place was white and bright and yet he could lose sight of things amidst it. As Klaus walked he seemed to grow smaller, less visible and Stefan moved after him instinctively.  
“Klaus!” he called and Klaus turned back to look at him. “What do you want from me?”  
“Your gratitude once I return you to your mate.” Klaus said and Stefan swallowed hard.   
Vida’s cries filled the space and Stefan looked around wildly, seeing her in the distance and he dashed to her and scooped her up from the ground. She balled her eyes out and he held her to his neck, cooing to her and holding her close. This seemed real. It seemed so real.  
“My angel.” He whispered and kissed her hair, smelling her scent. “Are you really here?”  
“Yes.” Klaus answered and Stefan looked to him.  
“How?”  
“Bonnie’s idea. Quite clever your witch.” Klaus commented and Stefan’s spirits began to lift as he realised that this really was Klaus and Vida.  
“How can you be here? Why?” He croaked, bouncing Vida as she snuggled her face into his neck.  
“It’s time for you to come home Stefan. Time for you to fight the wolf and take back your body.”  
Stefan stared at him, unblinking.  
“You can do it.” Klaus encouraged and held Stefan’s shoulders. “Fight tooth and nail.”  
“But I…she’s too strong.” Stefan shook his head.  
“When has that ever stopped you brother?” Klaus smirked and squeezed his arms tight. “Hold on to me.”  
Stefan slowly reached out and slung his arm around Klaus’s waist. They both searched each other’s faces as Vida squirmed and Stefan nodded.  
“Let me be damned for this.” Stefan whispered and closed his eyes.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Klaus felt himself fall, as though from a huge height and land in his body again. He shot his arms out and screamed as he opened his eyes. He fell to the ground and felt someone blur around him. Screaming, there was screaming. It was, it was Vida.  
Klaus gasped, trying to draw in breath as he looked for her, seeing her in Damon’s arms a few feet away as Damon checked her for injuries. Of course, he’d been holding her when he’d come back into his body. He must have dropped her.  
Beth was at his side in an instant and speaking to him, words of love and reassurance and he tried to breathe and relax. His whole body felt as though he was on steroids, his heart racing and his every sense heightened to the point of hyper sensitivity and pain. It was almost too much overstimulation and he covered his ears with his hands and tried to calm himself. People were talking, chanting, moving around him, water rippling, animals scurrying in the woods, planes flying over heard, traffic on the road miles away…it was too much!  
He cried out and panted, feeling the wet mud underneath his fingers and trying to concentrate solely on that sensation. When he’d broken his curse he’d felt over loaded like this at times. Vampire senses multiplied by wolf ones, was a cocktail for overload. He needed to stay calm and let his brain filter out everything that wasn’t needed right now.  
“Nicklause?” Beth whispered, stroking his hair behind his ears.  
Beth, don’t touch him. Feel that?  
Nathan channelled, tuning into some of Klaus’s thoughts.  
Step back and give him a minute.  
She nodded at him and sat back on her heels as Klaus drew in ragged breaths.  
“Is she ok?” Nathan looked to Damon and touched Vida’s face.  
She had stopped crying and was yawning now and looking up at him. Damon scented her forehead and closed his eyes.  
“What about..?” Nathan began and looked to Stefan’s body.  
Damon looked over and Bonnie approached, kneeling and touching Stefan’s face.  
“Stefan?” She asked and the eyes opened.  
Marcus held his daughter back and looked to Angela. Angela was chanting with a few of her tribe, waiting for Bonnie’s stone inside of the bowl of Damon and Nathan’s blood to glow. After a few seconds it did, shooting out a beam of light much brighter than the other and highlighting the boulder at the water’s edge.   
“It’s true. It has power.” Marcus smiled and Angela nodded, somewhat perplexed but relieved as she looked to Klaus. “As long as he lives.”  
“Marcus.” Bonnie drew his attention back to her and Stefan’s body. “We have to try now. For Stefan to reclaim his body, we have to give him a fighting chance.”  
He nodded and kissed his daughter’s forehead, before releasing his hold on her and moving to Bonnie, taking her hand. There was a vibration in the ground beneath them as they made contact and everyone braced themselves for some kind of earthquake or further tremor. Bonnie and Marcus locked eyes and placed their free hands on Stefan’s body. Damon approached them warily, tucking Vida into his chest as she closed her eyes and began to dose against him.  
“Come on little blood machine.” He whispered and Nathan rubbed his back and watched.  
“We can try my chant first, then yours.” Bonnie suggested and he nodded.   
She began to chant her spell to eject the foreign spirit slowly and Marcus picked up the words and began to join her. The ground shook a little and the other travellers looked to the source. Nisha watched them nervously. It was clear that all they cared about was the source. At least now they had a reason to keep Klaus alive for that purpose.  
Bonnie and Marcus stopped chanting and everyone fell silent and looked to Stefan’s body. It didn’t move at all, just stared blankly up at the sky.  
Nathan squeezed Damon’s shoulders as Bonnie sighed unhappily. Clearly her spell to eject the spirit hadn’t worked.  
“Let’s try it my way now.”   
Marcus suggested and she nodded, repeating his incantation as he said it slowly and dipped his fingers into the swamp water next to him.  
His connection to the water seemed to help him, made him seem stronger, more confident and he began to chant faster. Bonnie struggled to keep up and closed her eyes, placing her hand on the ground beneath her – not daring to use the energy from the source in case the travellers became angry.  
Stefan’s expression changed and everyone braced themselves. His face grimaced as though he was in pain and Damon held his breath as the mouth opened and a scream emitted.   
“Bonnie!?” Damon called out in fear, but she kept up her end of the spell, never breaking her focus.  
Stefan continued to scream and Klaus held his head in his hands still, trembling and groaning as Beth held him to her in comfort.  
“Make it stop!” Klaus shouted and both Bonnie and Marcus fell backwards panting.  
Stefan stopped screaming and returned to a neutral, dazed expression.  
“Bonnie?” Nathan asked and she shook her head sadly and sat back on the ground.  
“Try again.” Nathan prompted. “Maybe with the source you could…”  
“It won’t help.” Marcus interrupted him. “Her magic isn’t compatible with the source. I’m sorry.”  
Damon pressed his face into Vida’s neck and closed his eyes and Klaus slowly looked over at Stefan.  
“He’s in there.” He croaked, his throat rough from shouting. “I brought him back with us. He’s in there.”  
“You found him?” Beth asked and he nodded and looked to Bonnie.  
Bonnie reined in her emotions and Klaus looked to the source.  
“Isn’t there anything else you can try?” Nisha asked, standing behind everyone else feeling forgotten about.  
“I’m sorry. The only thing left for us to do is dispose of the vessel here.” Marcus said and Bonnie blinked a few tears down her cheeks in resignation.  
“I’m sorry.” She said to them all. “It’s over.”  
Damon nodded but didn’t look at anyone, focussing completely on scenting Vida.  
“I…I will call Anne. She’ll be here…I’ll…” Nathan stuttered in disbelief that this actually ending.  
They hadn’t saved Stefan.  
If Damon was going to live, he’d need to drink mated blood. Nathan looked to him, swallowing his heartache as best he could right now.   
“We’ll make it quick.” Marcus said to try and offer some consolation, helping Bonnie from the ground and nodding to Angela.  
“Wait.” Nisha said, but everyone was too overwhelmed by the fact that they were about to witness Stefan’s final death to notice.  
“Take Vida out of here. I’ll…I’ll bring the body back and we can bury him properly.”   
Nathan was saying to Damon, the words coming out choked and full of grief and Damon nodded numbly, but didn’t move.  
“Wait!” Nisha said louder and they all looked to her. “What if there was a way to make her want to leave the body, to give Stefan a chance to force his way to the front?”  
“How?” Marcus asked.  
“She’s enjoyed being in that body right?” She looked to Nathan and raised an eyebrow. “She enjoyed eating, feeling touch, feeling pleasure…”  
“Yeah.” Nathan said a little impatiently, thinking on Eve masturbating when they had been camping.  
“What if we sour the milk for her?” Nisha said simply and Bonnie frowned, considering her words.  
“What do you mean?” Nathan shook his head unsure and Klaus huffed and smiled, nodding his head in agreement.  
“She’s found a lot of stuff to enjoy about being in a body. So how about we bombard her with some bad things.”  
“Pain isn’t going to cut it, I assure you.” Klaus chimed in, remembering how much he had tortured her when in his captivity.  
“Mental pain and anguish then.” Nisha said. “Heartbreak, loss, grief…if you can all channel those emotions to her – won’t it be like she’s feeling them?”  
Nathan and Beth looked to each other excitedly and Nathan nudged Damon who was deep in thought.  
“Klaus?” Nathan asked and Klaus nodded and stood up.  
“Let’s give her hell.” Klaus said determined.  
“Your turn first then.” Damon spoke finally, looking directly at Klaus. “You’ve been there.”  
Klaus grimaced, thinking on being trapped in his shrivelled body at the end of Eve’s spell – burning and in torment for days until they had all brought him back. He had plenty of memory to channel to her!  
He focussed on Stefan’s end of the web and sent Eve his memories, shuddering as he recalled all of the vivid details – the pain and the burning had been horrific and terrible yes, but the feeling of loneliness, abandonment and desperation had been the worst of it. Stefan’s body shuddered and began to twitch and Damon’s eyes widened in hope.  
Klaus concentrated harder, channelling to her every fear, every loss he’d ever had, every betrayal and the body continued to twitch and groan. Beth took Klaus’s hand in hers and began to channelling now too – thinking of Jack’s death, of the agony of almost dying in the spell, of the confusion of it all. She began to shed tears as she recalled the pain of the energy being drawn out of her, the pain of life fading away, of losing her other babies, of feeling her bond beginning to break before Anne had interceded…  
Nathan looked to Stefan’s body too, preparing himself. Damon gave him a nod and he closed his eyes channelling the grief of being rejected by Stefan during mating, the pain of Jack almost ripping him in two, the aching of wanting Stefan and being denied, the jealousy and pain of the spell stripping away his own life energy…  
Damon swallowed and took a deep breath. Where did he begin? He shook his head and looked to Nisha. Nisha gave him a tearful nod and he looked to Vida. He held her tight and channelled the pain of losing his other cubs – the horror of that, the feeling of helplessness as Stefan was torn apart from the inside when birthing Vida, the torment of being unable to help him, sharing Stefan’s feelings of loathing over his new body, of their new nature, of feeling like everything they thought they were, being stripped away from them. The body began to scream again and thrash around and Bonnie and Marcus braced themselves for the ejection of the spirit.  
Klaus came back to what was transpiring and frowned worriedly. Every exorcism he’d ever seen had killed the body also – taking the native spirit with it. Was Stefan strong enough to survive this? He held his breath.  
The body convulsed violently and everyone stepped back in fear and awe as the mouth opened impossibly wide and seemed to regurgitate dust. It rushed in a cloud out of Stefan’s body, leaving it to fall into the dirt with a thud as the dust streamlined straight for Marcus.  
“No!” Angela cried out in surprise and Marcus held his hands up in fear as it poured into his mouth, causing him to choke.  
“Daddy!!” Marcus’s daughter cried out horrified and Angela shouted to someone to get them a weapon.  
Damon went to Stefan’s body, holding Vida as best he could as he tried to check Stefan’s eyes. Nathan took Vida from him and drew away from Marcus as Bonnie began to chant to try and trap the spirit in a bubble around the body.  
“Back! Get back!” Bonnie commanded to everyone but Marcus shouted in pain and then put his hands up again, trying to halt them.  
“How is this happening?!” Nisha shouted as the travellers surrounded Marcus with weapons.  
“That’s not his body.” Bonnie realised.  
“No.” Angela confirmed. “It was sacrificed.”  
“Oh my god.” Bonnie whispered, feeling foolish for not having checked whether there was another stronghold Eve could have used.  
“Only a body not in full possession of its native spirit can be used by another spirit for possession.” She said.  
Nathan stood in front of Nisha to protect her as Marcus roared and swiped at the traveller’s trying to get near enough to stab him.  
Klaus blurred towards him and the travellers fell back, yelling in surprise as Klaus bit his wrist open and fed Marcus his blood. Marcus yelled out in violation and Klaus broke his neck before anyone could speak. Marcus’s body fell to the ground silent and everyone stared at it.  
“What did you just do?!” Angela shouted angrily, aiming her gun at him and he stepped back and looked to Bonnie, wiping the blood from his lips.  
“He turned him.” She said and Angela looked at her in confusion. “When he…she wakes up, the body will be in transition - half-dead.”  
Angela fell silent as she thought on what that meant.  
“He can be consumed once he’s fully vampire.” Klaus clarified and Angela nodded, realising that by doing this, Klaus had cemented Eve’s spirit into a body that the water would consume, thus consuming her spirit and power and ensuring that she’d never be able to return to hurt anyone again.  
“How long?” Angela asked.  
“Could be minutes, an hour – you must feed him human blood to complete the transition and then you can put it in the swamp.” He advised and she nodded confidently.  
“We can do that.”  
Sobs broke out amongst some of the tribe, including Marcus’s daughter and Angela turned to them all.  
“Marcus was your leader, your scholar and he’s fulfilled his role of bringing you home. His sacrifice won’t be forgotten. He’s just saved us all, saved our magic.” She said and her words seemed to bring a small level of comfort to those gathered.  
Angela looked to Klaus again.  
“As long as you live, so will our magic.”  
“So it appears.” Klaus said without emotion.  
“We won’t harm you or yours.” She said and he cocked his head and gave her a fake smile.  
“That would have been ambitious of you.” He remarked, smirking now and Angela looked to Bonnie.  
“No one can know where the source is however.” She said and Bonnie nodded in agreement.  
“I know a spell. It could cloak this location, so even we wouldn’t be able to find it again.”  
Angela nodded and Bonnie moved to Nisha for help retrieving some herbs and her grimoire from Nisha’s backpack. Nathan moved to Damon, who was still trying to rouse Stefan but getting nowhere.  
Anything?  
No. He’s…if he’s in there he isn’t responding.  
Damon channelled worriedly and Nathan squeezed his shoulder.  
Stefan? Little blood machine? Family. Mate. Love, love, love…please….  
Angela moved to the water edge and dropped Bonnie stone into the water with Marcus’s and the water glowed for a few seconds before fading and appearing as water again. The stones had returned their energy and the magic stored within them to the source.  
Klaus eyed Marcus’s body as the other travellers’ bound the arms and legs with thick rope to secure it. Marcus’s daughter watched distraught but in acceptance and they locked eyes for a few seconds.  
“Your child could become like us.” He commented and she held her stomach. “Hide it. Whatever else you do. Don’t let anyone know that it exists.”  
She nodded, swallowing some tears and turned away, heading towards a tent away from the horror of watching what would happen next.  
Nisha watched the young girl retreat and looked to Klaus now. He turned his head as if on cue and stared at her. She felt her body tremble automatically and cursed her lack of ability to block out her fear of him. He cocked his head and she stared straight back at him.  
“I know your face.” He said quietly and she clenched her jaw. “Wolf.” He added.  
“Good. I hope it haunts you.” She answered, her voice hard but clear.  
Klaus frowned for a second and studied her as though trying to place her in his mind. Had they actually met? He raked his mind – in the battle after the spell perhaps. There had been so many wolves and they had all been in wolf form anyway, so it’d be impossible to tell. She certainly wasn’t the alpha who’d stolen Toby. He licked his lips slowly. He hated not being able to place someone’s face in his mind.  
“Why would I be haunted by you?” He asked casually and she clenched her fists. “Come now love, my crime against you couldn’t have been that bad or you wouldn’t still be alive.”  
“You killed my husband.” She spat and he raised one eyebrow, but gave a bored expression.  
“I’ve killed lots of husbands.”  
“And my baby.” She added, her eyes burning intensely like hot black coals and Klaus’s expression dropped.  
He stood silently and with less confidence and she huffed under her breath in surprise that he seemed to be affected by her revelation. She’d expected more nonchalance. He looked away from her as if gathering his thoughts and then looked back to her again, clearing his throat.  
“Pity.” He said softly and turned his back on her, walking back towards Marcus again, leaving her standing stupefied.  
Nathan looked over at her and moved to her immediately, having missed the whole episode. She blinked in a daze, unsure what to do with all of the emotions swirling around inside of her, coiling in her stomach like a snake ready to lash out and bite. She held herself feeling nauseous and listening to her heart thundering in her ears.  
“Nish?” Nathan whispered and cupped her face.  
She looked at him, seeing Vida in his arms and she reached out and took her from him, holding her close and kissing her hair. Vida squirmed but sighed against the familiar scent of Nisha’s skin.  
“What did he say?” Nathan asked her, holding her around her back with one of his arms and she shook her head, unable to verbalise her feelings just yet.  
“Did he threaten you?” He asked and she exhaled and looked over to Klaus.  
Nathan turned and looked at Klaus too, causing Klaus to turn his head in their direction. Nisha watched as Klaus and Nathan channelled to each other, wondering what they were communicating and Nathan turned back to her. She studied his face, trying to read his expression like the other mates did with each other.  
“He’ll never be sorry.” Nathan said softly and apologetically. “He doesn’t think about right and wrong like we do. He doesn’t understand anything other than what affects him.”  
She nodded and bounced Vida gently.  
“He’ll never apologise.” Nathan added, making sure she understood that.  
“No.” She nodded.  
“He’s not worth it.” Nathan whispered and she exhaled.  
“I came with you hoping to kill him. Hoping that I could watch as he suffered and died. I wanted Eve to get him.” She admitted. “I wanted it more than anything else I’ve ever wanted in my life, even if it cost innocent lives.”  
He frowned a little unsure of what she meant.  
“All of this hate and anger.” She sighed. “It’s changed me Nate. I feel like a different person. He made me like this. He made me into someone who would stand by as innocent people are sacrificed just so he can be killed.”   
She shook her head grieved and looked towards the travellers tending to their wounded, to Beth still wet from being in the swamp and to Marcus’s body.  
“I wanted him dead even if it cost the lives of all of these people because they aren’t my people. Because they are strangers, I’d have stood back and let it happen.”  
“But you didn’t.” he pointed out and she shook her head. “Nish, you took care of Bonnie as she defended these people. You were the one who came up with the idea to get Eve out of Stefan.”  
She looked to him teary eyed and opened her mouth to argue when there was a grunt from behind them. They looked around to see Marcus’s body move, coming back to life.  
“Blood. Now!” Klaus commanded and Angela moved from the water edge and cut into her palm, offering it to Klaus.  
He placed her hand over Marcus’s mouth and despite his initial revulsion and struggling, he licked at the blood unable to help himself. Klaus pulled Angela’s hand away again and she held it tight to stop the blood flow. The travellers all gathered their weapons again and crowded around Marcus, watching as Marcus gasped and began to breathe loudly, his body transforming. He began to fight against the ropes, smelling Angela’s blood continuing to float through the space between them and Klaus grabbed him by his throat and lifted him from the ground.  
“Klaus!” Marcus growled but Klaus could see that the spirit behind the eyes was not that of Marcus any longer.  
“Hello grandmother. We’ve been waiting for you. Time to re-join the earth for the last time.” He grinned and Marcus’s eyes widened.  
He began to fight Klaus’s hold but Klaus carried him easily over to the swamp. Marcus began to scream and Klaus threw the body far into the water, to the deeper section. The water bubbled as though there was a volcanic reaction happening and everyone stopped to observe. A strange sense of calm and serenity came over the woods and they knew it was over finally.   
Klaus took Beth in his arms, kissing her head.  
“We should get home to our son.” He whispered and she nodded and smiled.  
Nathan kissed Nisha’s forehead and looked over to Damon, frowning in anguish as he realised that Stefan was still unresponsive and now lying limp in Damon’s arms. Damon’s face was blank and without hope. Klaus felt Nathan’s grief and looked to Stefan too, Beth hiding her face in his neck for comfort.  
“We should go.” Nathan said.  
“Not yet.” Bonnie said and began a chant, moving her arms up towards the sky as she did so.  
The wind blew a gale around them all and the travellers’ watched in awe at the display of magic so different from their own. It lasted only a few seconds before it ceased and they all looked around and to Bonnie, wondering what had just transpired.  
“Now we can go home.” She breathed and nodded to Angela. “The cloak is in place. After we leave this area we won’t be able to see the source anymore. It’ll be as if this part of the woods doesn’t exist.”  
Angela nodded, believing her words without suspicion. Bonnie nodded to everyone to leave. Damon lifted Stefan into his arms like a robot and walked past them all without acknowledgement. Nathan followed him with Nisha and Vida in tow. Klaus and Beth followed after them, leaving Bonnie looking towards Angela.  
“Good luck.” She said with a sincere smile and Angela nodded.  
Their walk back through the woods towards the cars was solemn. They had won the war but lost their battle for Stefan’s soul. It was a victory but didn’t feel like one.  
Nathan tried to channel to Damon but Damon blocked him. It hurt. Damon had never closed off his mind to him before.  
“Do you want me to take Vida back in my car?” Bonnie asked Damon but he just grunted and looked off into the forest, still holding Stefan to him.  
Nathan clipped Vida into her car seat, thankful to have something to occupy his mind at the moment as Beth arranged who was travelling back with whom. Klaus watched Damon carefully.  
“You need to call Anne.” Klaus mumbled to Nathan and Beth shook her head and looked at them both.  
No. Anne left me with some of her blood just in case I needed more after the spell ended. I have some at the mansion.  
Nathan and Klaus both felt their bodies release slightly with relief at that. They could break Damon’s bond with the blood and he would live. The only thing left to do would be to bring this to an end now, let everyone move on. A line had to be drawn so they could begin the grieving process.  
Klaus opened his mouth to verbalise this when Stefan’s mouth opened. Damon looked down in surprise and Stefan’s eyes fluttered. Klaus took a step towards him.  
“Stefa...?” Damon began to speak when Stefan let out an earth shattering scream.  
Nisha held her hands over her ears and everyone grimaced in response and Klaus blurred towards Damon and grabbed both of them, whisking them away into the woods in a flash of colour.  
“Klaus! Klaus?!!!” Nathan shouted in fear after him, but Beth caught him and held him.  
“No. He knows what he’s doing.” She insisted.  
He shook his head and looked off in the direction his alpha and friend had been dragged to, sagging.  
“Let him handle this.”  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Damon barely felt his feet leave the ground as he was pulled forcefully through the air with Stefan still in his arms screaming. The sounds of the screams were so high pitched they filled the universe of sound and Damon could focus on nothing else. It was as if some weird alien creature had crawled inside of Stefan’s body and was trying to escape. Perhaps that’s what was happening.  
He felt the ground beneath him finally and fell forward, crying out as Stefan was ripped from his arms and staggering as all the light around him was extinguished. He fell onto his knees panting and looking around with his vampire vision.  
“Klaus!” He cried out and immediately felt a hand of steel close over his mouth, silencing him.  
He panted, trying to shove the hand away.  
Silence. Absolute silence!  
Klaus channelled in demand and Damon nodded and pushed him away. He blinked, tuning in his other senses since he couldn’t see anything at all. The space was completely dark and contained. They were no longer outside in the woods. He heard sniffling and breathing and he looked in that direction.  
No channelling to him, nothing at all.  
Klaus commanded and Damon gave a nod, even though he couldn’t see where Klaus stood. He tried to breathe as quietly as possible.  
Where are we?  
In the container. We need stillness.  
Damon thought on that. The sniffling continued. It must be Stefan. He sounded as though he was in pain and Damon felt his heart squeeze in desperation to go to him and hold him, comfort him. Was it him, was he back, was it really..?  
Stefan groaned and sobbed suddenly.  
What did I say?!  
Klaus channelled anger and Damon realised that he’d been inadvertently channelling his worries and questions. He sat back and closed his eyes, trying to calm his own mind. He could wait. He’d waited so long to be with his Stefan again, he could wait a little longer – whatever Stefan needed.  
After what felt like an hour, Stefan’s sniffling began to relax and quieten. Damon had lain back on the ground to relax too, still unsure of where Klaus was.  
“Da…” Stefan’s voice began shakily and Damon sat up and looked towards the source of the sound, his heart racing in hope.  
“Loud.” Stefan’s sounded as though he was in pain still. “Your heart.”  
Damon kept silent.  
“Damon?” Hearing his name being said finally ended him and he propelled himself towards the voice.  
Slowly Damon, his senses are raw. Too much stimulation will be unbearable.  
Klaus advised and Damon saw Stefan’s outline as he drew next to him, reaching out to touch his shoulder gently. Stefan seemed to shiver a little at the touch but turned to him.  
“Stefan?” He whispered on as low a register as he could and Stefan brought Damon’s hand from his shoulder up to his face to cup his cheek.  
Damon exhaled and let tears fill his eyes as Stefan slowly pressed Damon’s hand to his cheek and nose, inhaling his scent.  
“Is it you?” Damon asked and Stefan inhaled his hand again, giving a nod. “Who am I?” He asked, fearing some other spirit had taken over again and was trying to fool them.  
“My brother.” Stefan whispered, “My soul mate.”


	48. Chapter 48

Chapter 48 TH

“My brother. My soulmate.” Stefan had whispered and Damon’s heart pounded.  
The sound seemed to hurt Stefan’s ears again and he withdrew and groaned a little. Damon closed his eyes and tried to calm it down to an even pulse and Stefan’s breathing slowed.  
“Everything hurts.” Stefan whispered. “It’s too much.”  
“It’ll ease.” Klaus spoke from nearby and Damon looked to the direction the voice was coming from. “Just relax.”  
“Where am I?” Stefan asked and Damon held himself back, trying not to touch him again.  
“In my storage container.” Klaus said and Damon nodded to himself.  
Of course. Thankfully there was furniture in here and a bed in case Stefan was too weak to move.  
The bed?  
Damon channelled in question and Klaus brushed up against him, coming to stand by his side.  
Behind him.  
“No, I mean…which…” Stefan exhaled frustrated and Klaus gave a quick nod of understanding.  
“You are back in your vampire body. In the year 2015.”   
Stefan made a sound of elation and relief at Klaus’s clarification and Damon laid a hand on Stefan’s shoulder gently.  
“Stefan there’s a bed behind you.” He whispered and Stefan moved backwards clumsily, looking for it.  
“I need light. I think…I think I can take light now.” Stefan said as he stumbled into a few objects.  
Klaus pulled out his cell phone and touched the screen, shining a small amount of light out on the floor at their feet. Damon got a proper glimpse of Stefan’s face for the first time and his body sagged in relief to see him. Stefan kept his eyes narrowed and grimaced, but he looked to them both.  
“Ok?” Klaus asked and Stefan nodded, blinking.  
Stefan looked behind him, his body practically collapsing in relief and Damon moved to him, touching his back gently as he helped him onto the mattress.   
“I’m sorry.” Stefan whispered and pushed Damon’s hands away gently. “It hurts.”  
“What does?” Damon frowned and stepped back.  
“Everything. My skin, my eyes, my brain...” Stefan closed his eyes.  
“Sleep brother. We aren’t going anywhere.” Klaus said with such warmth in his voice that Damon looked at him.  
Stefan nodded, letting out a deep exhale and Damon sighed and rubbed his eyes.  
“Don’t worry about anything. I will handle it.” Klaus said to Damon and he nodded numbly. “He just needs time.”  
Damon looked to Stefan again, aching to touch him.  
“Your beta will look after Vida until you’re ready to leave here.” Klaus added and Stefan’s eyes popped open.  
“Vida!” He said worriedly and sat up, groaning as he did and holding himself.  
“It’s ok Stef. She’s with Nathan.” Damon cooed, clenching and unclenching his fists as he held himself back.  
Stefan panted and held his face in his hands.  
“Easy brother. I know it’s intense, but your senses will ease.”  
“No.” Stefan croaked. “I’m a vampire again.”  
Damon and Klaus looked at each other in concern.  
“Yes.” Klaus said softly.  
Stefan looked at him, his eyes a little better adjusted to the light still emitting from his cell phone.  
“I was human.” He said and Klaus looked to Damon nervously. “I don’t know how to be this anymore.”  
Damon sat down and Stefan looked to him. Damon extended his hand in offering and Stefan took it, looking into his eyes.  
Mate.  
Damon channelled and Stefan grimaced for a second but then relaxed and closed his eyes.  
Love. Mate.  
Damon channelled again and Stefan gave a small nod of understanding. Damon pulled Stefan’s hand towards him slowly – slow enough to allow him to pull back if he needed to and placed Stefan’s hand over his heart.  
“How long has it been?” Stefan whispered, looking to Damon’s chest somewhat dazed.  
“A lifetime.” Damon answered and Stefan nodded in agreement.  
“You died in my arms.” Stefan mumbled.  
Damon squeezed his hand in response.  
“Father killed you.”   
Damon gave a short nod.  
“What happened to you?” Stefan studied his face.  
“I woke up back here.” He replied, omitting the part about being forced into mating sex with grandma, for hours after wards.  
“When? How much time passed?”  
“A day, almost two.” Damon released Stefan’s hand and he retrieved it and shook his head. “How long for you?”  
“Longer. Years.” He said grimly.  
Damon swallowed nervously. He’d had an idea that would be the case, but what did that mean for Stefan’s sense of identity now? How many years had he lived beyond those of the human Stefan from this reality?  
“How many?” Klaus asked.  
Stefan looked to him before answering, as though he was choosing his words carefully.  
“Almost enough.” He mumbled.  
“For what?” Klaus frowned.  
“To have convinced myself that Damon was a fantasy.” He looked to Damon again and Damon shrank back from him a little. “Almost.” Stefan reminded but didn’t reach out to comfort him.  
Klaus looked to Damon in sympathy and Stefan shook his head and sighed.  
“I’m sorry. I’m just confused. I don’t know what’s real anymore.”  
“You are.” Klaus reminded and Damon moved from the bedside to give himself a moment to breathe.  
“Yeah.” Stefan nodded. “I’m all here.” He touched his chest thinking on his soul, firmly intact and inside of his body where it was supposed to be.  
Damon turned his head and looked at him.  
“I’m me again. Completely.” Stefan said in wonder.  
“What happened to you over there?” Klaus sat down at his side as Damon watched but didn’t speak.  
“I lived.” Stefan said simply. “I had a lot of things there that I never got the chance to have.”  
Damon swallowed pain in his throat and held himself.  
“A mirage.” Klaus said and Stefan shook his head.  
“No. Much more than that.” Stefan’s tone was odd and Klaus raised his eyebrows.  
“Children.” Damon said softly and they both looked to him. “He had children.”  
Grief.  
Damon winced as he felt Stefan channel unbearable grief- perhaps unknowingly. Channelling was something it had taken them both a while to master. Was this human life experience going to meddle with all of that now? Was the human life going to take over his memory? Were they going to have to learn to be what they had been all over again?   
That thought sent a chill through him, enough to attract Stefan’s attention. Stefan frowned at him, studying him and Damon gave a fake smile. Klaus looked from one to the other and seemed to understand what was happening. He reached out and squeezed Stefan’s shoulder to take the spotlight off of a very uncomfortable and vulnerable Damon.  
“You have a child here.” Klaus reminded and Stefan nodded and gave a small grateful smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “She needs you very much brother. As do the rest of us.”  
Stefan searched Klaus’s face and seemed to remember the whole point of this bizarre turn of events being linked to his planned murder plot.  
“What happened? Where’s Eve?” He asked.  
“Toast. Metaphorically speaking.” Damon smirked.  
“Gone, for good.” Klaus nodded in agreement and Stefan’s body relaxed further. “You have a lot to catch up on.”  
“Later.” Damon added and he and Klaus nodded to each other and Stefan rubbed his eyes.  
“Yes, well. I will let you two…get on with it.” Klaus smirked at Damon and rose from the bed.  
Damon watched, feeling the desperate urge to follow him out of the intense atmosphere in the room, as Klaus moved to the where the door was and opened it. Stefan shrank back as light filtered into the container, highlighting some of the antique furniture and…where those coffins stacked at the very back?!   
“Don’t break that bed.” Klaus jested.  
“Light!” Stefan shuddered, drawing Damon’s attention away from the outline of the coffins and to him again.  
Klaus closed the door behind him with a click, returning the room to complete darkness now. Damon fished around in his pocket for his cell phone, to shine some light once more.  
“No. Leave it dark, please.” Stefan requested and so he popped it back in his pocket.  
Silence fell between them and Damon reached out to the bed and found the edge, sitting down on it and waiting.  
Well, this wasn’t the reunion he’d expected. He sat for a few minutes, waiting for Stefan to say something. The silence was deafening. Eventually he had to fill it.  
“You joined your soul back together again.” He whispered. “You’re not a half-ling soul anymore.”  
Stefan grunted in confirmation and Damon gave a small smile of congratulations, but felt his heart drop a little. It was silly to feel grieved that Stefan no longer shared his soul – it had made them weaker and more susceptible to pain and death, but it had been romantic. He’d liked it.  
“How do you feel?”  
“I feel…” Stefan tried to verbalise, “I feel new.”  
Damon looked blindly towards where Stefan was sitting, uncertainty spreading in his expression at his words.   
“Stefan, I…” he began but wasn’t sure what to say.  
“Why are you so..?” Stefan began to ask and paused, “…sad. I forgot how loud channelling was.”   
Damon nodded absent-mindedly.  
“You’re feeling…so lost and sad. Am I really different now?”  
Damon let out a sound of emotion.  
“It wouldn’t matter how you came back, it wouldn’t change what I feel for you Stefan.” He said.  
“Then why are you hurting?” Stefan followed up.  
“You were human. I was some ghost of a brother to you.”   
“You were more than that.”  
“But still a brother.”  
“What are you..? Oh.” Stefan realised. “You think I don’t love you like I did before.”  
“Do you?” Damon pushed.  
“Not exactly.” Stefan admitted but quickly began to speak again when he felt heartbreak channel from Damon’s every cell. “It’s different now, but it doesn’t mean it’s not love Damon. I have all this other stuff in my head now, all these feelings and memories. I don’t know how to describe it to you.”  
“Ok.” Was Damon’s only response.  
“Don’t sulk.”  
“I’m not sulking.” Damon said grumpily.  
“Yes you are.”  
“How would you know? You can’t even see me!” Damon sighed.  
“I know you, remember.” Stefan sighed and tried to feel his way towards where Damon was sitting.  
He reached his arm and slid his hands up, turning Damon’s face towards him.  
“Don’t.” Damon said softly and removed his hands, holding them.  
“I still love you, there’s just more now.” Stefan squeezed his hands. “It’s going to take a little time for me to figure this out.”  
“What are you telling me here?” Damon asked.  
“That I need some brain space.”  
Damon huffed.  
Love. Need. Desperation. Longing.  
“I’m trying.” Stefan sighed in response. “You’ve become my brother again.” He struggled to explain. “One I’ve been looking for since I was a kid. I can’t just forget that. I need to process.”  
“You don’t want me.” Damon surmised.  
“I don’t know.” Stefan croaked honestly.   
Pain.  
Damon channelled and Stefan placed a hand on Damon’s stomach tentatively. What was he doing?   
“What are you doing?” He croaked, finding the intimate contact painful after such a declaration.  
“It’s been such a long time.” Stefan answered, his fingers ghosting over Damon’s manhood.  
Damon sucked his bottom lip into his mouth and waited, feeling himself harden.  
“I’m married and I…” Stefan sounded conflicted. “…her body was different.”  
Damon trembled as Stefan continued to touch his manhood through his jeans exploratory, but was a little perturbed at him still thinking this way. Married? Did he really still feel an obligation to his imaginary wife?  
“There was nothing fake about it for me. I spent the last four decades of my life there. I can’t just erase it.” Stefan mumbled.   
“We’re mated Stefan – that’s more than marriage, more than 1000 years of marriage and a million kids.”  
Stefan rested his hand back on the bed and sighed again.   
“I remember, it just…makes me feel confused. I haven’t had sex with anyone for a long time and when I did it was with my wife.” Stefan struggled to explain and Damon swallowed a lump in his throat.  
“I can wait.” He said, unsure what else to say and felt Stefan lower his face to his stomach.  
He leaned back on his elbows and ran his fingers into Stefan’s hair, allowing Stefan to sniff the roses that were emanating gradually.  
“I can wait as long as you need little blood machine.” He said soothingly, closing his eyes as he felt Stefan rub his nose along a line of his muscle.  
“I do love you. Even when I didn’t know you, I knew there was a part of me missing.” Stefan spoke pressing his lips to Damon’s skin.  
“I know.” Damon soothed and Stefan began to scent him, reaching his tongue out to his skin.  
“I’m so horny.” Stefan groaned but seemed confused still. “I want to be inside you right now, but I feel like it would be a sin. I could burst! You smell so…”  
“It’s the pheromones.” Damon said, still stroking through his hair. “They make us want to connect, remember? Our bodies want to fit together.”  
Stefan sighed, torn.  
“My body is burning.” Stefan whispered and began to lick the skin again, following Damon’s treasure trail down to the waistband of his jeans and Damon sucked in a breath, his manhood throbbing with the effort to stay inside of his clothing.  
“Stefan! Maybe you should stop.” He exclaimed, feeling his blood begin to heat.  
“Why do I need to be inside you, when I know you’re my brother? I know it.” Stefan whispered and Damon felt Stefan fingers unbuttoning his jeans.  
“Stefan…fuck!” Damon gasped as he felt Stefan’s tongue taste the tip of his erection.  
It was just a small taste, innocent. Damon waited, his cheeks glowing. Stefan paused for a few seconds before climbing in between his legs hastily and pushing Damon back onto his back. He fumbled a little, removing his own clothing like a nervous teenager having sex for the first time. Damon relaxed his muscles, laying back and waiting – not wanting to push anything. Stefan had said that he needed time, but damned if he was going to interfere if he’d changed his mind!  
“God I want to bite you.” Stefan gasped, feeling his body bursting with lust. “I want to eat you.”  
“Promises, promises.” Damon teased and Stefan took Damon’s jeans off and grabbed his ankles, spreading his legs further apart.  
He leaned in and searched for Damon’s mouth, bumping their faces by accident. They both chuckled.  
“I wish I could see you.” Damon said and held Stefan’s face between his hands.  
“No, this is good. I…this is easier.” Stefan said and captured his mouth hungrily.  
Damon frowned a little, but opened his mouth to the kiss. Stefan’s kissing was a little strange – a little more reserved almost and different from before. Maybe he was kissing like he had been doing in that other world.  
Damon reached up and stroked his back lovingly and took over. Stefan relaxed and allowed it, melting against him and bringing his hands up to cup breasts that weren’t there. He paused and broke their mouths apart, tracing his hands over Damon’s muscular chest through his shirt. He slid his hands under the fabric and touched Damon’s chest hair curiously.   
Damon paused, waiting.  
“I’m sorry.” Stefan huffed.  
“It’ll come back to you.” Damon gave a weak smile and gyrated under him in encouragement.  
“I’m just used to…”  
“I know, but…” Damon paused, unsure what to say. “It’s ok.”  
Stefan sighed.  
“You still…” Damon swallowed the lump that had returned to his throat. “You still want to try?”  
“Yes.” Stefan said without hesitation and Damon felt a little comforted by that. “You smell so…and I feel like I won’t be able to breathe if I don’t have you.”  
“Here. Skin to skin.”   
Damon reached down and undid his shirt buttons, opening them and pushing the sides of the shirt aside and off of his arms. Stefan helped him as best he could without sight until Damon was completely nude.

Stefan leaned his face down to Damon’s nipples and began to lick over them, swirling his tongue and Damon clenched a fist full of Stefan’s hair and hummed, arching into his mouth. Whatever hesitation Stefan had showed at the absence of breasts, he had overcome now as he grew more confident. He licked up Damon’s chest, as though Damon’s skin was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted and Damon began to breathe in little moans and gyrate.  
“Now you got it.” Damon moaned in encouragement and Stefan rubbed his manhood against his.  
“Oh god.” Stefan panted and pulled up, taking his own erection in hand and reaching down with his free fingers to find Damon’s entrance.  
“Take your time, it’s ok.”  
Stefan seemed to breathe frantically and fumbled, missing Damon’s entrance a few times as he struggled to find it. Of course – sex with women was easier in this respect. Damon sat up and cupped his face, kissing him to calm him down. He slid one hand down to Stefan’s erection and rolled his thumb over the tip to collect some fluid. Stefan gasped into his mouth. Damon inserted his own finger inside of himself and Stefan traced his hands to follow. Damon pulled his finger out and allowed Stefan to push his in. He lay back to relax the muscles there and Stefan attempted to prepare him.  
“I don’t need much. You won’t break me.” Damon encouraged and Stefan withdrew his fingers, getting excited again.  
He lined up and Damon tilted, feeling the moistness of Stefan’s manhood pressed against the right spot. He opened his mouth in anticipation and Stefan pushed into him in one go. He yelped in surprise and Stefan pulled out apologetically.  
“No, it’s ok, it’s ok. It was just a surprise. I’m ok.” Damon soothed him and Stefan slowly entered him again.  
They both sighed as Stefan paused fully inside and climbed up to Damon’s face.  
“Feel familiar?” Damon whispered, trying not to thrust his hips.  
“Yeah.” Stefan whispered and began to move.  
It was slow and nervous – both of them touching each other clumsily due to lack of light, but the more Stefan relaxed into his movements, the easier it became. Kisses changed from being polite and exploratory, to being messy and wet with saliva – teeth clashing occasionally.  
Stefan began to pant and speed up, his moaning increasing and Damon began to whisper to him to climax.   
“I can’t hold off…”  
“Take me Stefan, own me!” Damon panted and Stefan howled, sounding like a wolf and spilled inside of him.  
Damon tilted his head back to expose his throat and Stefan lunged for it and bit deep to drink. The crash of the violent blood wave rolled through him and he shouted out, feeling his orgasm rip his senses from him. Their bodies continued to convulse and rock together as Stefan began to growl and drain more of the orangey nectar from the fount below him. Damon felt himself become lightheaded but he didn’t care. Stefan was back. Stefan was here, alive and inside of him. Stefan was back and he was still his mate, his love…  
As Stefan continued to drink, Damon cried out again at another surge of orgasm from the wave. Stefan pulled his mouth away panting and attacked Damon’s mouth. Damon responded as best he could but Stefan was in charge at this moment. Stefan pulled out of him and turned him onto his side. Damon closed his eyes to rest, but Stefan had other ideas.  
He pushed inside of him from behind, holding him in a spooning position and bit the scruff of Damon’s neck, growling.  
Mine.   
Stefan channelled and Damon began to rock back against him, helping his thrust. Stefan’s hold on him was crushingly strong but he felt wonderful and worshipped. Stefan’s animal brain took over and he pounded Damon hard, shaking his body with every thrust while holding him in the position by his scruff. Damon took his manhood in hand and began to stroke it in time with Stefan’s thrusts and Stefan sped up until the room blurred around them.  
Damon screamed out another orgasm and spilled onto the bed and Stefan clamped his teeth deep into the back of his neck and growled out his climax. Damon saw stars at the action and lay limp. They breathed loudly, unable to even raise their heads and Stefan released his scruff, licking over the wound made by his fangs. Damon closed his eyes and enjoyed the attention.  
Blood. Blood. Desire.  
Stefan channelled as he continued to gnaw and lick at his neck.  
Hmmmn.  
Damon couldn’t find the energy to say anything more as he began to drift asleep.  
Stefan began to recall their unique anatomy as he lay there with Damon snoring softly. His entrance was wet. He tried not to worry about that. He’d get used to it again. The thought of being penetrated though…he didn’t feel ready for that. He frowned and pressed his nose into the back of Damon’s head, smelling his hair. He thrust a little as he smelled the roses still and Damon shivered and sighed.  
Having sex with a man would take some getting used to again, but he could feel how right it was – how their bodies ached to fit together. He just hoped Damon could be patient with him and help him through this foreign world again. Everything here was different and although he remembered it, his human life was still so fresh in his mind – like a dream he’d just awoken from which still weighed heavily in his perceptions.   
He felt himself begin to slide out of Damon and he moved to allow it, coating Damon’s bottom in his juices as he rubbed his pelvis against him. They’d figure it out together.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
They were all still waiting at the cars when Klaus walked back to find them and he couldn’t hide his smile. Beth smiled back and she and Nathan exchanged glances of relief.  
“Is it Stefan?” Nisha asked and Klaus nodded and kissed Beth’s forehead in reassurance.  
“How is he?” Bonnie asked.  
“Exhausted.” He said simply.  
“Where are they?” Nathan asked and Klaus smirked.  
They are…reconnecting.  
Klaus chuckled and channelled and Nathan began to chuckle too.  
“Stefan’s every sense is magnified and raw. He’ll need some time to adjust, so they may be absent for a few days.” Klaus explained. “He’s been in a place where he was human, so it’ll be a little tricky to fit back into his life.”  
“Human.” Nisha asked and he looked to her, searching her face as he had done last time.  
“Yes.” He said softly and looked away from her again.  
“I can take Vida for a few days.” Nisha said to Nathan and Klaus looked to her sharply.  
“No.” he said and Nathan stepped to Nisha’s side.  
“Nisha is family now. If it wasn’t for her, you wouldn’t have Toby.” He defended and Klaus narrowed his eyes at Nisha again. “Show her some respect.”  
Klaus huffed and Beth looked up at him, with the same command on her expression. He frowned and looked to Nisha again.  
She breast fed our son and kept him alive when you were burning.  
Beth channelled and his expression changed to wonder.  
Your hybrids killed her husband and caused her to miscarry and yet she still saved our impossible children.   
Klaus swallowed and gave a quick nod to Nathan, looking away from them all and Nisha nodded too.  
“Ok then.” Nisha said and Bonnie smiled.  
“Let’s get everyone home.” Bonnie said.


	49. Chapter 49

Chapter 49 TH

Damon woke up, feeling the warmth of Stefan’s body pressed into his back. He sighed happily. The room smelled like a florist’s. Stefan was back. He was confused and had some strange notions in his head, but he’d joined with him and that had to be a good thing, progress for them, hope of continuing their lives mated.  
He rolled over slowly to face him and reached out to touch his face, stroking his cheek and Stefan leaned into his hand and fluttered his eyelashes.  
Love, little blood machine. Love, love, love…  
He felt his chest hurt with the emotion and Stefan sighed and opened his eyes. Damon beamed at him.  
Stefan jerked back suddenly and Damon froze. Stefan blinked at him as though he didn’t know him for a second and then calmed down again, settling himself back into place. Damon watched him, trying not to take it too personally, but it was challenging.  
“Hey.” Stefan said softly.  
“Hey.” Damon gave a tight smile.  
“Where are we?” Stefan asked, a blush creeping up from his neck.  
“Still in Aladdin’s Cave.” Damon responded and sat up slowly.  
The moment was gone and it felt weird again. Stefan sat up too and covered his sex sheepishly. Damon noticed the movement and reached over, finding Stefan’s jeans and handing them to him. Stefan took them and turned his back, sliding to the other side of the bed to put them on again. Damon hung his feet over his side and looked down at his hands disappointedly.  
“Do you regret it?” He mumbled, keeping his back turned away from Stefan as he listened to him fumbling with the belt buckle.  
“What?” Stefan asked.  
“Joining.” Damon clarified. “With me.”  
“No.” Stefan said but he sounded a little off. “I wanted you.”  
“Guess I’ve got that kind of face huh.”  
Stefan looked back at him, wincing at his obvious pain.  
“I still…want you that way.” Stefan said and Damon slid off the bed and began to dress methodically. “It’s crazy.”  
“What?” Damon did up his shirt casually as he responded.  
“Everything, everything we are.”  
Damon turned to look at him.  
“Everything we are to each other.” Stefan added and Damon returned to his shirt buttons again.  
Pain. Rejection.  
Stefan felt his chest aching and he exhaled and moved to him, embracing him much to Damon’s surprise. Damon held him back lightly, unsure what he was doing and Stefan tucked his face into Damon’s neck and shoulder, breathing him in like he remembered doing. Damon’s scent welcomed him and he closed his eyes. After a few seconds Damon squeezed him fully, his heart fluttering in hope.  
“I’m sorry. This must have been hell for you too.” Stefan whispered.  
Damon nodded silently.  
“It’s like everything that is real…is like remembering the past for me.” He explained and Damon pulled back to cup his face, his eyes soft.  
“Being human, being back at home…it’s as though I’m still there and everything else is the dream.” He added and Damon gave a small nod of understanding.  
“And the human you, didn’t love me like a partner.” Damon mumbled and he nodded.  
“There was a moment – when I first saw you and you kissed me.” Stefan looked into the distance remembering all those years ago on the battlefield. “I’d never thought of a man like that before. I’d heard rumours of soldiers who liked to touch each other – hell I’m sure they tried to hide it, justifying it to their heterosexual selves as relieving the uh…tension of war.” Stefan smirked.  
“But you never..?”  
“No. I was married. That was the way things were supposed to go. I felt something whenever you touched me, I just didn’t know what.”  
Damon nodded, licking his lips.  
“I had you all built up in my mind as some super hero – some lost brother who’d have understood me and never judged me.” He smiled in remembrance. “It almost drove me mad when you died at the hospital.”  
Damon stroked his hairline and tucked some hairs behind his ear.  
“I almost lost everything trying to find you again. I…” Stefan paused, closing his eyes and reliving the feeling of hopelessness, madness and paranoia that had followed.  
“What happened to you after? How long were you there for?” Damon asked gently.  
“I spent a year after you left, mad and drugged.”  
Damon held him close, encouraging Stefan’s face back into his neck as he tried to soothe him.  
“It took me a long time to move on. In the end I knew I had to or I would die. The children kept me going. They were so innocent and they needed me.” He smirked and continued, “Peter was always saying…”  
He stopped dead as he realised he’d never hear Peter’s voice again, or his other precious two. They were gone, a fantasy. Damon pulled back and cupped his face with both hands now and Stefan exhaled and squeezed his eyes closed in pain.  
“My babies. They’re gone.” He croaked. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without them Damon.”  
Damon frowned, unsure what to say. He couldn’t imagine how Stefan was feeling right now. He’d been to that other reality and knew how real it had been, but the only person he’d had a real emotional connection to had been Stefan – he’d known everyone else was a shadow – save from Mammy and his father.  
“I know they weren’t real.” Stefan pulled himself together and wiped his eyes, looking into Damon’s eyes. “But they were real for me.”  
“I’m sorry.” Was all Damon could think to say and Stefan nodded in thanks. “Stefan, how can I make it better?”  
Stefan held his hands over Damon’s on his cheeks and breathed deeply until he felt calm again.  
“Give me time.”  
“I’ll give you whatever you need little blood machine.” He said gently.  
Stefan nodded and pulled back from him slowly, searching for the rest of his clothes and Damon finished buttoning himself up as he considered where they went from here.  
“Are you ready to go back outside?” He asked.  
“Yeah. I need to be somewhere that feels normal. I feel like at any second I could wake up and find myself back in hell.”  
“You were in hell too?” Damon asked horrified and Stefan shook his head but tilted it, thinking on that.  
“My own personal one I suppose. I had to put myself there to figure out who I was again.”  
“What was it like?” Damon’s curiosity was burning.  
Giuseppe had said that Damon would go to hell if he had died in that limbo world. One day there was every chance he’d be faced with that again and he was desperate to know what might be waiting for him.  
“Hell.” Stefan said. “No one hates you more than yourself I guess.”  
Damon thought on that as Stefan tied the laces on his boots. That was very true. There would be no better judge than your own conscience. He shivered. Hell wasn’t going to be a good place for him when the time came. Then again, what if you were the sort of person who didn’t feel guilt? What if you thought of yourself as righteous – many people had committed atrocities in the name of god or justifiable vengeance, crimes of passion, told to by aliens or even under the pretext of protecting their freedom. If you really believed you were in the right, would you even go to hell?   
They both finished dressing in silence, using the light coming in under the doorway as a guide to where everything was placed. It must be morning outside. The sun was shining bright out there.  
“What do we do now?” Damon looked to him, trying to ascertain whether Stefan’s vampire senses had stopped tingling.  
“I want to see Vida. I need to hold her.” Stefan said, moving towards the door and Damon followed him.  
The door opened without too much strain – Klaus must have left it unlocked. Light shone through and Stefan stopped and shielded his eyes. Damon rubbed his back and stepped around him and outside to look around. Stefan took a few seconds to adjust and dropped his hand from his face, letting his eyes blink and focus.  
“Ok?” Damon asked and he nodded. “I think the highway is that way.”  
Stefan stumbled along behind him for ten minutes, neither speaking until they got to the road side. They stopped, looking around. Damon grumbled, realising that he’d left his car at the gypsy camp where he’d first encountered them. They had no ride back.  
God damnit!  
Stefan frowned at him as Damon grunted and put his fingers in his hair, pulling.  
“There’ll be a carriage along at some point.”  
“This isn’t the 18th century anymore Stefan.” Damon huffed and Stefan crossed his arms embarrassed. “I mean…no. We’re in the middle of nowhere here. We’ll have to call someone.”  
“Right.”  
Damon pulled his cell out of his pocket and dialled Nathan’s number.   
“Nathan, hey. We…yeah he’s fine. We need a ride. Yeah. Ok.” Damon hung up and turned back to him. “He’s coming.”  
“Nathan.” Stefan nodded. “How long?”  
“I have no idea where we are.” Damon shrugged, uncomfortable with that. “But this is where they left from.”  
He noticed the tracks of the cars as they pulled from the road and parked onto the grass, heading towards the woods. He scratched his head, not recognising any of the landscape at all. Now that they were out on the road, he actually had no idea what way they had come from Klaus’s container. What the hell would he have a container hidden in the woods for anyway? What was in those coffins? He should have snooped before they left, because he was fairly certain that he wouldn’t be able to find the container again.  
“How will he find us?” Stefan looked up and down the road and Damon looked back to him.  
This is how.  
He channelled and Stefan blinked and then nodded as he thought about that.  
“So you can still hear me then.” Damon commented and Stefan nodded. “You remember that we can memory share.”  
Stefan tilted his head, wondering where the conversation was going.  
You can show me everything, all of your feelings and it’ll help me understand. I can help.  
Damon offered.  
Stefan gave a smile of thanks but looked away from him.  
“You don’t want to.” Damon guessed.  
“It’s been a long time since I let someone into me like that. I’m not ready to open up my mind yet.”  
“It always helped us before.” Damon mumbled.  
“One day I will, but right now I just need to figure everything out myself.”  
Damon rubbed his face.  
“Stefan…”  
“Damon I nearly lost my mind. For years I’ve had to keep myself in check, keep reminding myself to stay focussed. I, I’m not ready to make myself vulnerable to doubt yet and if I am hearing thoughts that aren’t mine I’ll…”  
“I get it.” Damon said gently and gave a small smile. “It’s ok.”  
“If it hadn’t been for father, they’d have lobotomised me.” Stefan barely whispered and Damon swallowed, horrified at the notion. “God knows what that would have done to me in there.”  
They fell silent again. Damon sat down on the concrete and crossed his legs and Stefan sat down next to him.  
“Why did you sleep with me last night?” Damon turned to him.  
Stefan searched his thoughts, trying to explain.  
“Was it just the roses?” Damon pushed.  
“The roses?” Stefan frowned and shook his head, not understanding.  
“My pheromones. Our pheromones.”  
Stefan’s face straightened in contemplation.  
“Some of it, but I remember our sex before too and I wanted to.”  
Damon shook his head unhappily.  
“Damn pheromones.” He mumbled.  
Stefan nodded silently.  
“If I hadn’t smelled like that. Would you…would you have..?”  
“I don’t know.” Stefan exhaled and looked to the ground beneath his feet.   
“Great.”   
“You know how I felt about you before. It’s still inside me. It’s just a little more complicated now.”  
“So what am I supposed to do?” Damon asked beseechingly.  
“Help me work through it.”  
Damon blinked and nodded at the prospect. Stefan began to fidget with his clothing, unaccustomed to modern attire being so tight and sculpted to his body and Damon fell into deep thought for a few minutes.  
“When we first mated, we were brothers then – pure and simple.” He paused and Stefan looked to him, listening. “Yeah, the blood wave happened and we were horny. We fucked a lot in that cellar but it didn’t stop there. You kept telling me that you loved me. That it wasn’t just about sex and blood.”  
Stefan bit his lip, trying to recall.  
“You said that you’d loved me, trusted me above everyone else when we were human and you felt like that again. I never could understand why you started to feel like you wanted me that way so quickly.”  
Stefan still said nothing so he continued.  
“I’m good at sex. I know it. I’ve turned a few guys gay for me by fucking the straight and narrow out of them, but why did you feel different? My baby brother. I could never get my head around it. It wasn’t just the blood, so why?” He looked at him, wanting an answer this time.  
“Have you ever asked yourself the same question?” Stefan looked at him. “Why did you start to feel romantic love for me?”  
Damon exhaled and pursed his lips.  
They’d never had such a candid conversation before.  
“I don’t know.” He settled upon and they both looked back to the road. “It just happened. What does that even mean?” Damon huffed.   
“Whatever we want it to I guess. I don’t think that anyone sets out to fall in love with somebody. There’s normally just…a spark.” Stefan contemplated. “In the cellar…there was a spark.”  
Damon searched his face.  
“When?” He asked and Stefan looked to the road, remembering.  
“It was so long ago.” He said, struggling and Damon sighed. “I remember wanting you through the blood wave. It became all I could think about the longer we were trying to feed each other, until I talked you into having sex.”  
“There wasn’t much talking involved.” Damon gave a small smile.  
“It was…” Stefan paused and clicked his tongue as he tried to summon the memory fully, “…it was when you shut yourself down after that first time. You were angry and horrified that we’d had sex. You wouldn’t talk to me or let me touch you for a whole day, remember?”  
They looked at each other and Damon nodded silently.  
“I was freaking out.” He admitted. “I didn’t want to feel emotions, but I couldn’t tune you out down there.”  
“I guess you were having the normal reaction that we both should have had to us being intimate.” Stefan surmised and Damon rubbed his face.  
“Sort of. You were my baby bro.”  
“And we had sex.”   
“It was more than just sex, even that first time.” Damon added. “If it’d just been sex I could have just…shaken it off as an impulse we were having because of the blood. I’d still have been feeling weird but it wouldn’t have changed my feelings for you.”  
“You’re telling me that being inside of me, even though we were brothers, wouldn’t have creeped you out and changed your feelings towards me forever if it had just been sex?” Stefan raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “Sex would have changed everything anyway, one way or the other and what should have happened was that you should have wanted to get away from me.”  
“I did feel like that.”   
“You did?” Stefan frowned, feeling his stomach churn.  
“I thought about just leaving you in the cellar and going, when I chased Caroline back up to the lounge. I could have.”  
“Why didn’t you?”  
“Because it wasn’t just sex between brothers. You are my brother, you always will be, but you’re also the only person in my entire life who’s always loved me and stood by me Stefan. I’ve watched you struggle and suffer trying to be a good person and although I give you a hard time about it – I admire that you care so much. I trust you. I trust in you. So when you told me that you were beginning to feel love while we were joining, I knew it was something special. I knew that you wouldn’t be willing to follow it, unless you knew it was right.” He paused as Stefan listened with his heart in his mouth. “I knew you felt love growing and I wanted it. I wanted someone to love me.”  
“Even me?” Stefan asked in a soft voice, reeling from the intensity of this confession.  
“You became something more than my brother. You became a partner, my saviour and my prey all at once. I felt…whole.”  
Stefan sat back, supported on his hands as he tried to understand. He recalled a similar feeling and the pain of Damon’s initial rejection because of it.  
“The way we’re talking about this feels…feels like an autopsy.” Damon lowered his head and fidgeted with the laces on his boots. “Is that what’s happening here?”  
Stefan exhaled.  
“I was ready to go, to cross over.” Stefan mumbled, his eyes glazing over. “I’d made my peace with all of my guilt and shame. I faced it all. I didn’t feel any lingering regrets anymore and I swore that no matter where I was I’d be there for you and Vida.”  
Damon looked at him sadly, his eyes large and vulnerable and so blue they were glowing.  
“Not having you in my life this time around, meant that I didn’t have someone to love me unconditionally.” He looked at him. “You always have, even when you hated me after Katherine, I knew it was because you loved me and the betrayal cut so deep. I knew that while you were hurting there was always a chance that I could win you over again. I tried so many times.”  
“You succeeded.”  
“Only because we couldn’t run away from each other in that cellar and we had to face things or die. Did I feel more than familial love for you when we were human? Did I…did I ever see you as you should see a brother or was I always…” Stefan shook his head frustrated.   
“You really feel like this is wrong now?” Damon croaked. “Because of being human again?”  
“Everything was clearer when I was in limbo. I love you, Damon. I know I do. I know how much.”  
“Spit it out Stefan.” Damon clenched his jaw and looked to the ground. “Just say it.”  
“I need to really see who we are and how we fit together.” Stefan admitted. “I don’t want to hurt you. I just need to feel right about us again, as sure as I was before.”  
He reached out and stroked his fingers through Damon’s hair as Damon zoned out.  
“We might have started out in muddy waters Stefan, but when we left and went to Chicago we had a real relationship there – we had fights, nicknames, games we played, dreams together, the works. You can’t tell me that it wasn’t real love then and since. You begged me not to break our bond when you got your humanity back and it wasn’t because you were afraid of being on your own without me, or because we were dying or being forced into anything. You told me you loved me too much not to be with me like this.” Damon took his hand in his and licked his lips.  
“Damon…”  
“I might have started out being the one who wasn’t willing to accept our love – I tried to fight it…tried to find answers from Anne as to why it had happened and whether it was because we were under some kind of influence…”  
“Because you knew it was wrong.”  
“No. I was afraid, that’s all. I was afraid of how much I love you because I haven’t ever felt that for someone else. It didn’t seem possible for me to feel this much. I didn’t feel capable of it, so I didn’t trust that it wasn’t because of some magic spell that made us mated.” He kissed Stefan’s fingers gently and Stefan watched him.  
“I don’t give a crap if some god up there or other people think that our relationship is disgusting incest and that it shouldn’t have happened. They can all go about their own damn existence however the hell they want!” He said heatedly. “I know who I love and what I want and if someone has an opinion I don’t agree with, then they better get out of my face before I tear their heads off, because this…” he pulled Stefan in towards him and cupped his face, pressing their cheeks together. “…this is the most god damned powerful feeling in the universe Stefan. I found you in limbo because this love is so real and pure…” he ran out of steam, his throat closing up as he spoke.  
Stefan cupped either side of his face and exhaled, closing his eyes.  
I love you.  
He channelled, unable to say anymore.  
“I don’t regret anything that we’ve done.” Stefan ran his fingers into Damon’s hair and gave him a small peck on the lips as Damon’s body sagged. “That’s not what this is about.”  
“Being a good person has always been more important to you than me.” Damon whispered and drew away from him, standing up and turning away.  
Stefan frowned in grief and remembered Damon saying something of that nature to him another time. When was that? He wracked his brain for the memory, feeling as though he was chasing a leaf in the wind inside of his head.  
“This is bigger than both of us Damon.” He said and Damon wiped at a tear angrily, remaining with his back to him. “I don’t think we’ve ever really talked about this before. We’ve swept over it and we can’t anymore.”  
Damon said nothing in response.  
“This is important for Vida.” He said and the mention of her name had Damon looking around at him.  
Stefan’s heart sank to see tears on Damon’s face. He looked utterly devastated and lost. He stood up, wanting to touch him, to remove that awful expression, to soothe his aching heart. Damon’s veins came to the surface of his eyes and they flashed danger at him as he flexed to reach out. Damon didn’t want him to touch him. That was very clear.  
“I saw things in that hell place. Horrible things that could be her future and I can’t ignore the fact that her future is totally in our hands.”  
“What are you talking about?” Damon grunted.  
“Mammy was with me – the real one. I think she was some kind of angel and she offered to take Vida’s soul to heaven now, to save her.”  
“What?!” Damon turned fully to him now, his veins tingling all the more.  
“Vida isn’t a product of nature. She’s something new, which means that if she grows up to commit evil, to be some kind of monster, then she might end up in oblivion. Mammy didn’t know, no one knows.”  
“Bullshit!” Damon spat and Stefan’s heart jolted at the anger in his voice directed at him.  
“It must happen to some souls – some of them must just disappear and not cross over to heaven or hell Damon. Why else would father and Mammy pull such a stunt to give me a chance at connecting with the rest of my soul? They wouldn’t just do it to rescue me from hell, if that is what I deserved. They knew that I’d probably disappear like others have. There must be a place, a void, a something!”  
“Vida is the purest soul I know.” Damon shook his head fiercely.  
“Yes. She is.” Stefan agreed. “But it doesn’t mean she’ll stay that way when she grows. I’ve seen it. Seen something monstrous.”  
“What?”  
“A future that…it can’t happen Damon. We have to show her how to be a good person, right from wrong…”  
“Yeah, yeah, yeah I get it. All the bells and whistles!” Damon turned away again. “What the hell has any of that got to do with the fact that you are leaving me?!”  
“I’m not leaving you.” Stefan said and Damon huffed. “I am NOT leaving you! You’re my mate, my family.” He said louder with more force and Damon was silent.  
“But I’m not going to just accept that this is ok either. I can’t. I have to know that us being brothers and lovers isn’t going to confuse her. I need to be able to explain to her why we feel this way, because she’s going to see that it isn’t normal, that it’s viewed by the rest of the world as something indecent and morally wrong.”  
“You said…” Damon’s voice was almost inaudible as he spoke, “…that those rules didn’t apply to us anymore. We’re not human, so they don’t apply.”  
“The rules will apply to her though, Damon, don’t you see that?” He moved to him and placed a hand on his back. “She’s alive. She’ll grow up and have a family one day. She’s not like us and I can’t take her precious soul down with us.”  
Damon took a deep breath and turned around fully towards him again, looking reserved.  
“So now what?” He asked.  
“Why do you think I know the answer?” Stefan frowned sadly.  
“Because you’re the one who knows how he feels Stefan!” Damon exclaimed. “You’re the heart in my chest.” He held his hand over his heart and continued. “You always have been and I follow your lead.”  
Damon shook his head slowly.  
“And because…now I’m waiting for you to lead again.”  
Stefan exhaled.  
“You don’t give yourself any credit you know? I might make my feelings more known on the outside than you do but your emotions over-take your brain brother. You’re more heart than most people I know. You just never know when not to let it rule you.”  
“Yeah.” Damon nodded.  
“You don’t need me to lead you anywhere. That’d be the blind leading the blind in this.” Stefan let out a small chuckle. “I’ve just spent the last four years of my life as a human doctor in the 19th century. What the hell do I know about what we should do?”  
Damon looked to him again, enquiringly.  
“All I know is how to treat madness in men who should never have been driven to it in the first place. Sure I can tell you what logic dictates we should do, but it doesn’t mean that it’s the word of god brother.”  
Damon winced at the mention of the term ‘brother’.  
“What does logic say we should do?” He asked and Stefan stared at him for a long moment.  
He opened his mouth to answer when they heard the sound of a truck coming along the highway. They both stood up in anticipation, Damon sighing in frustration when he realised it was indeed Nathan and they’d have to continue this conversation later.  
Nathan pulled over and jumped out, approaching them full of adrenaline and wonder.   
“Stefan?” He asked and Stefan gave a smile and nodded. “Thank god!”  
Nathan pulled him forward into a hug and Stefan patted his back.  
“Are you ok?” Nathan whispered and Stefan gave a nod as Damon watched them.  
“I’m fine.”  
Nathan pulled back and looked to Damon, raising his chin in inquiry and Damon nodded once.  
How is he really?  
Guarded.  
“Where’s Vida?” Stefan squeezed Nathan’s arm, looking in at the passenger side of the truck.  
“She’s with Nish. Everyone’s waiting for you.”  
They climbed into the truck, Nathan driving and set off for home. Nathan chattered happily to Stefan, trying to find out what had happened to him without pushing him too far as Damon stared out of the window and drew faces in the condensation – each one with an expression borne of confusion and uncertainty.  
The drive didn’t take too long and he was relieved when they arrived back to the wolf camp. He’d go and retrieve his Camaro later. Right now, he wanted to reunite his family again. Stefan seemed nervous as they went up to Ian’s lodge and chapped on the door. He reached out and squeezed Stefan’s hand and Stefan gave him a grateful smile in response.  
Love.  
I feel it too.  
Ian opened the door and grabbed him in a hug. Damon released his hand and allowed him to be pulled inside and similarly attacked by everyone else present. Nathan squeezed Damon’s shoulders, massaging them as he waited for Beth and Nisha to let Stefan breathe from all of the attention and love.  
He seems different, unsure.  
You picked up on that too huh?  
What happened to him?  
Long story brother.   
Are you ok alpha?  
I don’t know. I thought the hardest thing would be getting him back, not having to fight against the life he lived without me.  
What are you talking about?  
Nathan turned him to face him and Damon channelled him the memory of waking up in Stefan’s alternate reality. Nathan’s eyes widened and he looked to Stefan immediately, study his interactions as Stefan finally noticed Vida’s sleeping form inside the travel crib Nisha had gotten for her.  
“Vida.” Stefan whispered and moved to her amidst everyone’s smiles and rejoicing that Stefan had been returned to them.  
Nathan sat Damon down on the sofa, worriedly searching his face while trying to appear calm and collected. Damon watched Stefan approach the crib and look inside.  
Stefan looked down at her. She was deeply asleep and her hair seemed to have grown longer than when he last remembered seeing her. Her hair had formed little locks, which were resting softly over her forehead, blocking some of her face from him. He reached down and swept them aside, needing to see her face. She exhaled and made a soft gurn.  
“She’s been down for a little while. She’ll be due her feed.” Nisha rubbed his back and hinted to him.  
He smiled and reached down, lifting her into his arms. She began to cry and he cooed to her, rocking her. She opened her eyes, pouting and looked at his face. His heart jolted at the vibrant colour of her eyes – just like his and he stared at her.  
Damon was on his feet and by his side in a few seconds, placing a hand on his lower back in query at his suddenly tense posture and Stefan blinked and relaxed somewhat, smiling down at her and cooing again.  
“Daddddddaa da…” she gurned and reached her hands up to his face.  
“Yeah, that’s right.” He smiled and kissed her forehead.  
She pulled on his hair a little and gazed at him for a few seconds as though beginning to register that he was back and Damon rested his chin on Stefan’s shoulder.  
Family.  
Damon channelled and placed a kiss on Stefan’s shoulder. Stefan tensed a little again and Nathan noticed, clearing his throat and raising his eyebrows at Nisha, who was watching Stefan in curiosity.  
“Anything for lunch?” Nathan broke the silence in the room.  
“You’re in luck. We have some venison stewing.” Isobel announced and he rubbed his hands together.  
“Great I’m starving!” He smiled and Ian threw a bag of potatoes at him, grinning.  
“Better get the rest of it cooking then.” Ian chuckled and Nathan’s smile dropped in protest. “We all pitch in here.”  
Nisha chuckled at how unhappy Nathan looked at the prospect of peeling potatoes and she rubbed Stefan’s back.  
“I’ll get a bottle for her.” She said and went into the other room, where the smell of venison was beginning to rise from the stove.  
Stefan was too absorbed with Vida’s fingers to notice everyone moving around and grabbing plates and chairs.   
“Relax. I’m going to wash up in our cabin.” Damon whispered and Stefan nodded, kissing Vida’s toes as she giggled and stretched her body out like a cat in his arms.  
“My baby girl.” Stefan mumbled as Damon left the lodge and closed the door behind him.  
Everyone around him seemed to blur into the background, their chattering and moving around becoming just a buzzing sound in his ears. He sat down in a chair and continued to search Vida’s face and she yawned.  
“You’re so different.” He whispered, stroking at her curls again and she blinked tiredly.  
He was unsure how long he sat, absorbed in her before someone realised that he wasn’t listening to anything that was being said to him. He felt a touch on his shoulder and looked up to see Beth’s face.  
“Beth.” He gave a small smile. “You’re here.”  
“So are you.” She grinned and kissed his cheek, hugging him. “We thought we’d lost you. Nick said you were in some kind of different reality?”  
He nodded and looked down to Vida.  
“Are you ok?” She knelt down and placed her hands on his knees.  
“I will be. It’ll just take some time to readjust to being back here.”  
“Nick said that time worked differently where you were.” She said, concerned and he nodded. “How long has it been since you last saw any of us?”   
She looked towards Vida, who was blowing bubbles and making happy squeals.  
“A whole lifetime. Nearly 34 years.” He mumbled and she frowned.  
“Wasn’t Vida with you in your other life though?” She asked and he narrowed his eyes at her. “Sorry, Damon channelled some of his memory of when he found you there to him and he was describing it to me.”  
Stefan frowned, feeling a little vulnerable at her foreknowledge. He wasn’t ready to sit and divulge all about his human life yet. It was too fresh for him. She leaned back to give him a little personal space and squeezed Vida’s foot playfully.  
“Not exactly.” Stefan answered her question regardless and she looked to him again. “I had my Vida with me there and she was almost 14.”  
Beth gawped at his words and searched his face.  
“Wow. That must feel strange. Did she look the same? I mean, when she was this age over there too?”  
“Yeah, except for the curls.” He smiled affectionately. “I guess there was a part of my brain that brought her image into my other life. Of course I didn’t spend much time with her when she was this small. I was always working and Mammy did everything for her really.”  
“The spirit that was talking to the babies?”  
“Talking? What do you mean?” Stefan asked, a little alarmed.  
“There was a spirit communicating with Vida and Toby. It seemed like she was checking in on them, comforting them.” She paused, hoping Stefan would know why and remove the stress of impending doom from her mind.  
Stefan simply blinked at her.  
“Do you know why she would have done that?” She prodded and he seemed to be weighing up his answer.  
“All I know is that she’s some kind of angel. A good spirit. She cares about them both.”  
“Did she say anything to you about Toby?” She asked, her eyes large and he kept his expression neutral and shook his head.  
There was no point in telling her that Mammy had offered to effectively kill both babies in order to rescue their souls from an uncertain future. Even though he thought he understood the sense in that act, the amount of love Mammy had to have to do something so drastic, it made her sound a lot less like an angel and more like a demon.  
“There’s a lot I don’t know about what happened Beth.”  
She gave a tight smile and patted his knee.   
“Of course. I’m just glad you seem ok and we can all get back to normal and on with our lives finally.”  
He nodded and pursued his lips slightly.  
“So, I bet she grew up to be as beautiful as you two. Did she still have Damon’s temper?” She chuckled and Vida shouted up at Stefan and grabbed at his hand.  
“I guess she did.” He thought on it and smiled. “Really it was Thomas who had the temper. My little shy one. Probably because he was so small compared to Peter at his age. It gave him a complex.”  
“Who?” She queried and Stefan’s smile faded.  
“My boys.” He felt his throat squeeze and he swallowed reflexively to ease it.  
“You had other children there?”  
“Yeah.” He gave a tight smile and she stared at him, unsure what to say. “Peter just turned 10 – he was my little man.”  
“Stefan I…I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry.” She said and he nodded in acknowledgement.  
“Sorry, I know that none of you could possibly understand what it was like over there, but…seeing her kind of reminds me of the others. I can’t help but think of them.”  
He swallowed a tennis ball sized lump in his throat and she sagged in grief for him. She chewed her lip, unsure how to go continue when Nathan walked in from the kitchen omitting a huge exhale.  
“Good. If I never see another potato in my life again…” he rambled and threw himself heavily onto the seat next to Stefan.  
Vida shouted and pointed at him and he made a wolf growling sound and tickled her belly. She burst into giggles as he pretended to bite her toes and Stefan sat back and chuckled too. Thank god for the breath of fresh air that was Nathan Bloom sometimes. Beth got to her feet.  
“Where is Klaus?” Stefan asked. “I wanted to thank him for, for coming to help get me out.”  
“He couldn’t stay here – obviously.” She raised her eyebrows and he nodded, realising.  
Of course he couldn’t stay here and be around wolves who were terrified of him and wanted him dead. He knew where he wasn’t welcome. In fact Stefan was surprised that Beth had even stayed considering the pack knew of her relationship with Klaus. What had gone on while he’d be absent?  
“Will you come and stay with us in a week or two? We can catch up and let the babies get some social time together.” She suggested and he nodded.  
“How about tomorrow?” He asked and she blushed and cleared her throat.  
“Might want to stay clear for a few days.” Nathan chuckled and she kicked him in the leg.  
“Huh?” Stefan looked to him and Nathan winked.  
Can’t you smell her?  
Stefan inhaled deeply and realised what they were referring to. Her heat was coming, any day now. She smelled like warm apricots, it was lovely. He wondered if that’s what he smelled like when he was in heat.  
“I didn’t want to go back before I saw that you were ok.” She said.  
“I’m fine. I will be fine. Go and relax. You’re going to need to. We’ll call.” He smiled warmly and in understanding.  
She leaned down and kissed his mouth, cupping his face as she pulled back.  
Family  
She channelled and he nodded. She kissed Nathan’s cheek and left the lodge. Nathan stretched out beside him and put his feet up on the table.  
“Where’s Damon?” He yawned.  
“Washing.”   
Stefan said, lifting Vida onto his knee now and letting her sit up so he could touch the clothes she was dressed in – a red dress with frills around the edges of her underarms.  
“You want me to feed her and let you jump in with him? Couldn’t have been very comfortable sleeping out in the woods last night.”  
“No. Thanks.”  
“Stefan, a lot has happened to you. We’re all here to help as much as you need to re-adjust. Nisha has a crib set up for Vida so she can take her for the next few nights to let you two…”  
“No.” Stefan said bluntly and Nathan stopped in his tracks. “There’ll be time for Damon and I later. Right now I want to focus on Vida.”  
“Ok. It’s just, I know there are a lot of blanks that he has to fill in for you. He…he’s had a rough time of it.”  
Stefan narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously, almost as though he was trying to figure out if he had an ulterior motive. It made him feel uncomfortable to see such an expression on Stefan’s face – it was almost like he had looked at him that first day that he’d found out that he and Damon were brothers and was sizing up whether he could trust Nathan with that secret.  
“I’m here for both of you.” He said, hoping to quench Stefan behaviour.  
“It’s a private matter as I’m sure you can appreciate.” Stefan said, sounding like a totally different person and Nathan frowned.  
“Huh?”  
“Nothing. Thanks.” Stefan sighed and shook his head. “I’m not used to speaking about personal matters so openly.”  
Nathan nodded. Damon had communicated the time period that Stefan had lived in and that made sense actually. Was Stefan going to carry through more of the etiquette from that time?  
“Food’s ready!” Ian called from the kitchen. “Nate, grab Nisha please and get your feet off the table.”  
Nathan chuckled and stood up, moving towards the door to call out for Nisha in the next lodge and Isobel came through to Stefan holding Vida’s baby bottle. She smiled, drying it with a towel and handed it towards Vida, who had started to bounce on Stefan’s knee and shout out, reaching her hands towards her.  
Stefan chuckled in wonder at her independence, until he noticed the colour of the bottle. Red. Everything seemed to go into slow motion and he looked to Vida’s face in time to see her vampire veins spread across her little cheeks and eyes. He felt horror grab him fiercely and he looked to the bottle again as it neared her little fingers. No. No, no, no!  
Before he realised what he had done he slammed his hand towards Isobel, knocking both her and the bottle away from the now screaming Vida and the bottle smashed into the floor and began to spill. Nathan ran over in astonishment and helped Isobel to her feet as Stefan growled in anger.  
“Don’t you ever give my baby blood! Not ever!!” He shouted, his fangs bared and Nathan stood in front of Isobel, wide eyed and afraid.  
“Stefan…” he whispered and put his hands up in an act of surrender.  
Ian came running into the room with a horrified and confused look on his face also as they all looked towards Stefan, shaking and speechless. Vida screamed her lungs out and reached for Isobel and Stefan took a few deep breaths and tried to bounce her.  
The door flew open and Damon blurred to him, wondering what the hell was going on and Stefan took a step back from him.  
“What the hell happened? What’s wrong?” He panted, looking from one to the other and feeling the tension in the room.  
No one answered. Damon looked to Nathan for answers and Nathan hinted to the broken bottle on the floor – thrown so hard that the plastic had broken.  
“I’m sorry, I just…we always…” Isobel stuttered, clearly still in shock and Damon put two and two together and turned to Stefan again.  
Vida wailed, still squirming and reaching out for Isobel and Damon reached out to take her, cooing, when Stefan growled at him.  
“No. I’m back now and things are going to change around here. No one is going to treat her like a monster ever again.”  
“Stefan that’s not what…” Nathan tried to object when Stefan growled again.  
“She’s mine.” He said, holding her tightly and moving past them all, out of the cabin.


	50. Chapter 50

Chapter 50 TH

Everyone stared at each other speechless as Stefan left.   
“What the hell just happened?” Ian asked and looked to Damon.  
Damon looked to him, just as confused and licked his lips.  
“Go after him.” Nathan said to him and Damon gave a small nod and headed out in Stefan’s direction.  
Ian hugged Isobel to him, rubbing her back and she shook her head worriedly.  
“He’ll be ok. He’s just…he didn’t mean to lash out at you.” Nathan consoled.  
“We’ve never agreed with feeding that baby blood Nate. It’s never sat well with me.” Ian said pointedly and Nathan nodded. “We’ve put our lives on the line looking after her.”  
“He knows that.” Nathan said apologetically. “He’s not himself right now.”  
“What happened to him?” Isobel detached from Ian and turned to him.  
“When he was out of his body he went to some weird other reality.”  
“Other reality?” Ian frowned.  
“It was like he was born again and grew up there.”  
“Grew up?!” Isobel gasped.  
“Time worked differently there and he was human. He had a family there, a wife.” Nathan added and both gawked at him silently.  
“For him, this must seem like a dream.”  
“More like a nightmare.” Ian said and sighed, crossing his arms as he thought on what that must be like for someone as emotional and sensitive as Stefan.  
“He’s going to need help with this. There’s no way he’s going to be able to get through adjusting after something like that.” Isobel commented and they all nodded and looked towards the door Damon had left by.  
Stefan paused outside, realising he had no idea what to do next. Vida was hungry so he should find some food for her. Did they have any in their cabin? Probably not and he couldn’t remember which one was theirs anyway. Vida wailed and a door to a cabin opened. He looked to it and saw Nisha looking out at him concerned. He went to her immediately, blurring to a stop in front of her and she grabbed her chest in surprise. He blinked, similarly surprised at how quickly he’d moved.  
“Stefan is it you?” She smiled widely and he nodded. “Are you ok?” She asked, looking at Vida who was now reaching out for her.  
“Food, Vida’s hungry. Do you have any?” He asked and she stared at him for a second.  
“Yeah. Come in.” She ushered them inside. “You don’t have any bottles left?”  
“I don’t want her eating blood anymore. She’s not like us.” He said and sat down, bouncing Vida and holding her up by her hands so she could stand.  
Vida sniffled but looked around and wobbled.  
A knock chapped at the door and Stefan frowned in its direction.  
Stefan?  
He sighed. Damon opened the door and came in, looking towards them. Nisha opened her bag and withdrew a sachet of formula she’d been saving. She’d hoped that this might come around and that she could encourage Vida to try human food. She waited for the kettle to boil and poured it into one of the extra baby bottles she had, shaking it and cooling it under cold water for a minute until she was satisfied it was the right temperature. When she moved into the other room she felt the tension thick in the air. Damon was sitting across from Stefan silently as Stefan busied himself with Vida.  
“You guys ok?” She asked. “Thank god you’re back with us Stefan.”  
He gave a small smile and took the baby bottle from her thankfully. Damon watched Vida nervously as she touched the bottle and looked confused by the colour.  
“She’s never eaten anything but our blood before Stefan. Go slow.” He advised and Stefan cradled her against him and stuck the tit into her mouth.  
She squirmed and spat it out unhappily. Stefan rocked her a little.  
“Come on Vida, eat up for father.” Stefan said and Nisha mouthed the word ‘father’ to Damon silently and raised her eyebrows.  
Damon gave a slight shake of his head and watched as Vida fussed and began to cry again. Stefan stuck the tit in her mouth once more, determined and she began to wail. The veins in her eyes came forth and Stefan closed his eyes and shook his head.  
“Vida you will eat this!” He said annoyed and she looked up at him unhappily. “This is food. This is what you need to be strong.”  
“Daaaa!” She cried and lay back in his arms, tilting her head back to look for Damon.  
“Stefan, she’s just little. She doesn’t understand.” Nisha said gently.   
“She doesn’t have to understand, she just has to learn. All children learn when taught how to behave.” He said and she frowned at him as he sat Vida up and tried again to feed her.  
“Stefan.” Damon said gently. “She’s not going to eat it. She doesn’t want it.”  
“Maybe you should try small amounts. Generally babies are weaned onto food Stefan. Maybe if you let her have small amounts with her normal bottle she won’t be so resistant.” Nisha suggested and Stefan exhaled and handed Vida towards her.  
She came forward and took her, a little unsure.  
“Please just feed her this bottle and put her down.” He said and stood up and Nisha looked to Damon confused.  
“Stefan, she’s not a servant.” Damon watched him.  
“What?” Stefan frowned and looked to Nisha again.   
“It’s ok. I can care for her today if you need some time.” Nisha offered and Damon stood up and took Vida back.  
“No, Nisha. You’ve done enough.”   
Stefan opened his mouth to object when Damon turned and left the cabin. Stefan stood up, watching him leave and looked to the baby bottle in his hand.  
“What happened to you over there?” Nisha asked and he looked at her wearily.  
“It doesn’t matter anymore.”   
“If you need to talk about it…”  
“Thanks.” He said but clearly had no intentions of doing so.  
He gave her a quick nod of thanks and left, following after Damon. He stepped outside to find Nathan lurking around the door, eavesdropping.   
“Hey.” Nathan said. “I know everything must seem weird right now, but remember we are your family Stefan.”  
Stefan gave a nod.  
“Do I have a car?” He asked and Nathan blinked. “A car, I need one or a horse.”  
“Damon’s car is gone. Not sure where it is. You can borrow mine if you need to…”  
“Great. Where is it?” He asked and Nathan blinked again and pointed to the green ford mustang they’d exited not long ago, parked not far from the cabins.  
“Where you going?” He asked and Stefan made to move towards the car. “You’ll need these.”  
Nathan handed him the keys and he nodded in thanks.  
“Stefan. You want some company?”  
“No, thanks. I just need to get a couple of things.” He said dismissively and headed to the car.  
Nisha opened her door and came out to stand with him, watching Stefan walk away.  
“What’s going on with him?” She asked and he shook his head.  
“I have no idea.” He answered and she looked at him, draping her arm around his back and leaning into him.  
“Can you sense what he’s feeling?”  
“No.” He said and sighed. “He doesn’t seem to be channelling.”  
“Should we be worried?”   
She looked over to their cabin where she could see Damon through the window, walking back and forth with Vida and feeding her from his neck.  
“I think we should.” Nathan admitted and gave her an unsure smile. “We need to give him space to figure it all out though.”  
She nodded and rested her chin on his shoulder.  
“You hungry? Lunch is ready.”  
“Starved.” She smiled and he put his arm around her and led her to Ian’s cabin.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Stefan got into the car and sat down, trying to take in all of the controls. It was strange remembering everything but it seeming faded and distant like a memory from his earliest years. He supposed that was what this was like after all. In his mind, he hadn’t been back in this world for the best part of 40 years.  
He scratched his head and tried to recall how to drive this vehicle. He was used to being driven in a cart everywhere or occasionally taking a steam locomotive. This seemed alien. He let out a deep exhale and tried to concentrate. He knew where he needed to go. He felt so conflicted. He needed advice.  
He started the engine, smiling at the instant reaction from the car and placed his feet on the pedals. He could remember. He just needed to relax was all. He was about to put the hand break off when he caught a glimpse of himself in the rear view mirror and paused. He stared at himself in amazement. He looked so young! He removed his feet from the pedal and leaned forward to touch his face, examining himself. He looked like a teenager.  
He was used to looking at a man in his forties – aged more than his years due to his life and experiences. He was clean shaven too and his skin was smoother, wrinkle free and pale. He’d began to notice red veins breaking out across his cheeks lately, but all of that familiarity was gone. He looked down at his hands, which were now shaking. No liver spots or wrinkles there either. He slowly patted down the rest of his body, searching for anything normal and was surprised to find such a muscular physique. He’d never really had that growing up. He’d become a little stronger and more toned during the war due to the heavy manual labour of the job, but nothing like this. It wasn’t disappointing – far from it, but it was yet another change that made him feel like he had been dropped back into a foreign world again.  
He closed his eyes and rubbed his smooth, boyish face.  
“This is unnatural.” He whispered to himself.  
He placed his feet back on the pedals and started the car into motion. As he did a screen lit up on the dash and he frowned at it. It was a navigation tool. He rolled the car forwards, heading towards the road out of the camp and a voice spoke, asking him where he wanted to go. He chuckled at that.  
He wasn’t sure where Mystic Falls was, how far away but he knew he needed to get there. He advised the car of his home address and the car plotted a route.   
“Ok.” He said to himself and put his foot on the gas.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Damon burped Vida and lay her down for a nap in their bed, cushioning her in with pillows. A knock came at his door and Ian entered after a minute. Damon put his finger to his lips to indicate that Vida was sleeping and he nodded.  
“I thought you could use this.” He said and brought in the travel crib they had been using.  
Damon nodded and gave a smile in thanks, taking it from him and sitting it next to the bed.  
“How’s the little tyke?” Ian moved to stand next to him and Damon carefully lifted her up and placed her into the crib.  
“Confused.” He whispered and Ian nodded.  
He tucked her in and stroked a trace of his blood from her cheek discretely.  
“What are you going to do?” Ian asked and Damon sat on the end of the bed.  
“No idea.” He admitted and smirked. “It’s like he’s a different person right now.”  
“What was he like in that place?”  
“Harder. Life back then was…cruel in a lot of ways. He wasn’t the brother I grew up with.”  
He didn’t even realise what he had said until he realised that Ian hadn’t responded to him and was searching his face. He looked at him.  
“What?”  
“Stefan’s your brother?” Ian asked, treading carefully and Damon’s eyes widened.  
“Shit.” He exhaled and looked down.  
“That’s how you knew the spirit. She was your wet nurse too.” Ian began to put it together in his mind.  
“Yeah.”   
“Wow.” Ian blew a breath out and sat down next to him. “You are together.”  
“We were.” Damon smirked.  
“And…” Ian looked to Vida in her crib and paused again.  
“Yup.” Damon followed his line of vision.  
“Is there anything normal about you two?” Ian tried to lighten the uncomfortable mood and Damon gave a mirthless chuckle.  
“What’s normal?”  
“Jesus.” Ian exhaled. “So…Stefan has been somewhere else growing up without you and now he’s back here.”  
“And he’s freaking because he’s not human anymore, mated to his long lost brother and technically a third sex.”  
Ian leaned his face into his hands, resting his elbows on his knees.  
“I have no idea what to do with that.” Ian admitted and Damon just nodded in agreement.  
“Vida’s the only familiar thing here and even then, she’s not completely human either. She’s not the Vida he had over there.”  
“He had a version of her there too?”  
“Yeah, a normal human one. By the time I got there she was running around like a normal kid.”  
“She wasn’t a baby?”  
“Nope. Add to that he had another couple of decades of life moving with him, while we were trying to get him back. He had two other kids too. They must have all been growing up with him.”  
“How’s is he going to adjust?”  
“Damned if I know.” Damon said feeling a little hopeless and Ian patted his back.  
“Where’d he go?” Ian asked and Damon narrowed his eyes at him.  
“Huh?”  
“He took Nate’s car and drove out of the compound.”  
Damon tensed at that.  
“Maybe he shouldn’t be alone if he doesn’t understand how to live in this time right now.” Ian suggested and Damon nodded and stood up.  
He looked over to Vida, conflicted and Ian stood up too.  
“Go. I’ve got her.” Ian said and Damon swallowed and nodded. “Take my truck.”  
He handed him his keys and Damon searched his face for a moment before turning and leaving the cabin hurriedly. He ran over to Ian’s truck and got in. Where the hell would Stefan go? He thought for a minute, trying to imagine. He had no idea where this new strange version would go for solace.  
He concentrated on their connection and pulled a little, feeling Stefan at the other end. He couldn’t be too far away then. He started the truck and pulled out onto the road, pausing when he reached the main road. He chewed his lip. If only he could channel to him, but Stefan seemed to be uncomfortable when any of them did that. He wasn’t used to it yet.  
Would he go to Beth? Would he go to get groceries for Vida? Where would he go?  
His human life and his real life still held a few similarities. The biggest one being location. Yes. That’s where he’d go. He turned to head towards Mystic Falls.  
Nathan, going to Mystic Falls for Stefan. Look after my girl.  
He drove like the wind, trying to think about what he should say when he caught up to him. He needed space but…they’d just got him back after a lot of trauma and everyone needed to know that he was really was back. No one knew what side effects there could be to him being out of his own body for so long. They needed to keep him close for a little while to make sure he was going to be ok.  
He wasn’t fooling himself that part of the reason he was chasing him and no honouring his wish to be given some space was for his own selfish reasons. He needed him. He needed his mate. His body certainly did at the most basic level. Vida had drank nearly all of their bottles and so Stefan was going to have to feed him from the vein in the short term – something he had a feeling that Stefan wouldn’t want to do, considering he felt conflicted about their intimacy.  
After what felt like days, he finally drove past the Mystic Falls sign and he headed to the Boarding House. He pulled up outside, feeling slightly glad to be home again, when he realised Nathan’s car wasn’t there. He got out anyway and went inside calling out for him. There was sign that anyone was here or had been for weeks. Nathan had littered the lounge with coffee cups and half eaten sandwiches that had gone mouldy, but apart from those obvious signs of habitation, there were none.  
He pulled at his hair and frowned. In Stefan’s human life in that reality he had been living at their original house, not this one. How stupid of him. He ran back out to the truck and jumped inside, headed for the road again. The original Salvatore home was overgrown and in ruins in the middle of the forest. Surely Stefan wouldn’t be able to find it.  
He reached the woods and left the truck parked at the road side. He blurred in, towards the old ruins and reached what would have been the front gates. He looked around and called Stefan’s name. No answer. He grunted in annoyance and looked around the grounds, noticing footsteps in the mud, leading around to the old family burial plot. He followed them and looked at all of the headstones – or what was left of them. Stefan’s footprints had stopped at Giuseppe’s grave and sunk in deeper than the others. Stefan must have crouched down and stayed here for a while. He sighed.  
The footsteps then wandered around, almost without any clear direction as though Stefan had been searching for something. What? He’d seen the burial plot in that other reality – the one with his headstone there. He shivered recalling it. Stefan knew that that headstone wouldn’t be here in this reality so who was he looking for?  
He shook his head and continued to follow the prints until he came upon grass and they disappeared.  
“Stefan?” He called out and looked around again.  
Nothing.  
He closed his eyes and pulled on their connection again.  
Pain  
He felt Stefan’s emotion and he frowned.  
“Where are you little blood machine?” He whispered desperately.  
He heard the chime of the local church bell ringing out the hour and he looked towards that direction. The church. Maybe? They’d been raised as Catholics in their real human lives so presumably Stefan had continued to follow that religion into adulthood. People in that time were deeply religious. That must be it.  
He headed for the church, walking through the woods to get there to give himself time to think on what to say to him when he reached him. It didn’t take long before he smelled the roses emanating from within the confessional. He sat down on a pew and looked at the altar. Strange. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been in churches before, but he couldn’t get his head around Stefan needing to be here, because it certainly felt like Stefan needed to be here, evidently to confess. His scent was increasing, probably because they hadn’t fed from each other yet. They’d joined last night but Stefan hadn’t fully given himself back to him yet – he was holding back against their bond. At least it wasn’t just Damon who was being treated that way. Everyone, even Vida, had felt the change in Stefan.  
Inside the booth Stefan wiped at a few stray tears and clasped his hands together in prayer.  
“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Forgive me father, I can’t recollect the last time I made it to confession.”  
“How can I help you today my son?” The priest asked in a warm tone that made him feel welcome and at home.  
“I’m so lost father.” He exhaled. “I’ve…” how to explain what he was going through? “I’ve been through some troubling times lately. I was at war and when I returned, I fought off madness for a long time. I’m recovered from most of it now, but it’s changed me and now the people that I love seem different to me.”  
“War changes a lot of things for people. It changes how we perceive the world around us. I’m sure your family understand that it’ll take time.”  
“They’re trying to understand, but they couldn’t. I feel out of place, out of my own time. Everything I’d come to know has left me.” Stefan croaked. “Nothing seems familiar and safe.”  
“Perhaps seeking some help from those who can empathise will help you.”  
“Maybe.” Stefan accepted and exhaled shakily. “The world that I thought was real, has been ripped away. I can’t get it back and there were people…important people…” he struggled not to picture the faces of his two boys, “…they didn’t make it back with me. They don’t exist anymore.”  
“Before I became a priest son, I was in the army. I saw untold horrors too.” The priest said and Stefan couldn’t help but look to the dividing panel between them, to try and see the man’s face.  
“I saw good friends, brothers to me, die. Not all of us made it back home.” The priest continued. “For a long time it angered me and I couldn’t understand why I had survived and they didn’t. What was it about me that was worth sparing, when some of those men had so much life left to give?”  
Stefan nodded and blinked fresh tears.  
“One minute they were there and then they were gone. As if they’d never lived at all.” Stefan croaked.  
“But they did live.”  
Stefan nodded in agreement. Of this fact he was vehemently sure. He’d even come here in hopes of tracing his wife from the registry – not that she had really been his wife, but he’d had to know if she had existed at all here. If she had, then maybe it meant that her soul had been part of his other life and that in turn might mean that his children still existed somewhere in their own rights – somewhere in heaven. He had found her name in the end and it had brought him to tears of relief. She had been real. She had lived, just not the life that he’d known for her. She had married in her twenties and had only one surviving child – a boy named Arthur.  
“They lived and breathed and they changed you. They changed you forever – that is the legacy they leave you. You may not be with them now, but they left a mark you’ll never forget. In your mind they are immortal through memory, my son.”  
That thought did comfort him slightly. His boys – immortal and alive for as long as he remembered them.  
“Have you embraced your grief? Fully embraced it?”  
“I don’t know how.”  
“You need an ending. Mourning is an important part of life. It’ll help you treasure the memory, but if you don’t have some sort of resolution to your pain, it’ll taint those memories. It can taint everything around you in time. Believe me, I have lived it. Only our lord god and saviour could save me from the blackness that surrounded my heart and help me live again.”  
“What should I do father? How do I begin?” Stefan begged.  
“Allow your loved ones to comfort you, let them in son. You’ll probably feel like you want to push them away but don’t. They can remind you of who you were before and help you reconnect with that part of you. To become a civilian again, you’ll need to be able to do that.”  
“What if the person I was before was a sinner?”  
“We all sin, that’s why you’re here. If you didn’t want to be a good person you wouldn’t have come.” The priest reminded him.  
“I made peace with all of the things I’ve done. I thought I had and I was ready to move on, but now that I’m back here everything seems muddled again. I want to be a good person, a good father, but my life here seems to want to pull me in the wrong direction.”  
“In what way?”  
Stefan swallowed hard, feeling his stomach clench in anxiety. Could he tell the priest about Damon? Should he?  
“I…I feel intense feelings of love for someone whom I shouldn’t.”  
The priest waited for him to continue.  
“Before I left, we became a couple and I was happy. I shared all of myself, completely.”  
“And what has changed now?”  
“I shouldn’t feel this way towards him. I don’t understand how it could happen. I remember it happening, but I just don’t understand why it did and now that everything is jumbled in my head I can’t help but feel like I should question it.”  
The priest was silent again.  
“It goes against god to love another man and I have loved him. We’ve been intimate father.” He rested his head against the wood panel separating them both.  
“And this love you feel, does it feel wrong?”  
“No and that’s what I’m so afraid of father. In the past I never questioned it, but now…”  
“What makes you question this love now?”  
“Because he’s…he’s…” he struggled. “Father, god help me, he’s my brother.” He wept silently and the priest stayed silent and allowed him to collect himself.  
“I’m not here to sit in judgement over you son, only our lord god can do that.” The priest said and Stefan sniffled, wiping his tears with a handkerchief that had been placed inside of the booth.  
“I can’t tell you what to do, you have to make the decision yourself.”  
“I know.” He agreed. “I just don’t know how to decide. He looks at me with such…longing and I can feel his pain at my rejection.”  
“Does he share your feelings?”  
“No. He did question our relationship in the past, but now he’s committed. We were intimate last night and I…I wanted him so badly. I couldn’t control my lust for him.”  
“It’s difficult to see wrong when it is between two consenting adults.” The priest exhaled as though he really was trying feeling frustration for him. “Perhaps the wider issue is that of the rest of your family and how your relationship affects them. Perhaps, that will help you decide how to move forward.”  
Stefan nodded, thinking on that. Vida. How could they continue like this with her to think of?  
“I have a daughter.” He mumbled. “I want to do everything I can to make sure she lives a good life.”  
“Perhaps she should take priority in your decision then.”  
“Yes.” He nodded. “I have a responsibility to her to teach her.”  
“Allow her to be your eyes.” The priest said then opened his bible to read from scripture.  
Stefan sat listening to the calming tones of his voice and began to collect himself. Once the passage had been read, he listed the sins he wanted to atone for and the priest assigned him some penance. He listened gratefully and recited his act of contrition. He felt better, he definitely did.  
“For His mercy endures forever.” He responded as the priest spoke the words of absolution.   
“In the hallway, there are pamphlets for veteran support groups my son. I suggest you take some and begin your journey towards health.”  
“Thank you father.” He smiled and stood up to leave.  
He exited the booth, wiping his eyes discretely and was surprised to see an empty chapel. He was sure he’d heard someone come in and take a seat. He hoped he hadn’t been in there so long that someone had forgone their chance at confession.  
He walked slowly towards the hallway and looked at all of the self-help posters on the walls and leaflets arranged on a table. Could this kind of thing help him really? He lifted a few and put them inside his jacket pocket, before he inhaled deeply and ventured forth back into the world.


	51. Chapter 51

Chapter 51 TH

Stefan retraced his steps, mulling everything over. The priest had been surprisingly lenient considering he’d just confessed to having homosexual sex with a sibling. He hadn’t been sure what to expect. In the time period he was used to, men were castrated or worse for sodomy. Sleeping with a sibling was shocking also – however he was aware that it did go on behind closed doors. Families of wealth were known to intentionally inbreed to keep wealth in immediacy. Still, full sibling incest generally didn’t happen in polite society.  
He wandered for a while, into the night, before he headed back in the direction of Nathan’s car where he’d abandoned it halfway into the woods from the roadside, stopping when he saw a silhouette he knew all too well.  
“Damon.” He said and sniffed the air.  
Roses.  
Damon was sitting on engine of the car, his back to the windshield, staring up at the night sky silently.  
“How did you find me?” He asked, approaching again and stopping by the driver’s door.  
Damon turned his head and looked to him, his eyes speculative. He looked hauntingly attractive in the moonlight and Stefan felt his stomach clench.  
“I know you.” Damon said, his voice barely audible.  
Stefan licked his lips and gave a small nod.  
“I needed some time.” He said as way of an explanation and Damon continued to search his face.   
“How much?” Damon asked and Stefan looked to him in surprise at his question.   
“I don’t know.” Stefan fidgeted nervously and turned to lean his back against the door, looking up into the night too.  
Damon turned his head and resumed his gaze at the stars. Neither knew what to say or do, so they simply remained like that for a while. Contemplating. Eventually the silence became too uncomfortable and Stefan had to speak.  
“I went to confession.”  
“I know.” Damon said quietly and Stefan turned and looked at him, his heart beating rapidly.   
“You were there.” He stated, not needing to ask. “I knew there had been someone else there!”  
Damon looked to him unapologetically and Stefan shook his head and pushed himself off of the car in frustration and anger. He felt vulnerable and exposed.  
“How much did you hear?” He asked tersely and Damon exhaled and looked up again. “Damon!”  
“What difference does it make?” He asked, still seemingly calm and sullen.  
“What difference?!” Stefan spat, anger growing. “It was supposed to be private. It was confession Damon, damn it! I needed it, I needed to be able to speak my mind, my thoughts in a place where I wouldn’t be judged by you – where I was safe!”  
Damon closed his eyes and exhaled.  
“What is wrong with you?” Stefan began to pace. “Why is it so hard for you to let me go?”  
“Is that what I’m supposed to do?” Damon sat up, looking at him dangerously. “Let you go?”   
Stefan exhaled, frustrated and Damon looked to the ground.  
“I can’t.” He said and Stefan looked back at him.  
“I’m not asking you to, I just…I need some space ok? You’re holding me too tight, you’re suffocating me with your feelings.” He sighed.  
Damon chuckled.  
“I’m suffocating you? Talk about role reversal Stefan.”  
Stefan looked up at the stars.  
“Don’t you remember how you felt when you first turned? When everything you thought you knew was gone? When everything you thought you were, was all fucked up and changed?” Stefan looked him in the eye and Damon looked away.  
“My whole world is upside down.” Stefan continued. “I can’t go back to what it was before because I am different.”  
He paused for a minute.  
“I’m not the person you love.” He said and Damon looked at him, his eyes wide with pain and hurt. “I’m sorry, but I’m not. I was him, but now I’m something else and I can’t hit rewind.”  
Damon climbed off of the car, his heart pounding so hard Stefan’s ears hurt. Damon approached him and cupped his face, holding him there so he couldn’t move.  
“It doesn’t matter what happened to you, how different you feel because I know you. I know you in here.” He placed a hand over Stefan’s heart. “I’d know this heart in any hell, in any disguise because it’s mines.”  
Stefan avoided his eyes.  
“This is what I mean.” He whispered and Damon tilted his face to make him look at him. “You have to stop saying things like this to me. I know how you feel, I’d be able to feel it from China and it doesn’t help me.”  
He gently pushed Damon’s hands away and Damon swallowed and took a shallow breath. Stefan walked a few paces away from him and Damon held a hand to his stomach and looked back at him.  
“What am I supposed to do?” He croaked, feeling like he would vomit. “Stop loving you? Stop fighting for you? The old you wouldn’t have wanted me to stop trying.”  
“The old me has lived a whole lifetime without you, searching for you - searching for a brother. To think that I’ve found you now and you’re my…we’ve…” Stefan couldn’t verbalise his thoughts as he grimaced.   
“You had me as a brother! I sucked at it Stefan. We hated each other. I tried to kill you!” Damon gritted his teeth.  
“That was a long time ago.” Stefan said and Damon clenched his fists.  
“So, what? You want me to play the part of your brother again until you can tell whether or not you still love me?!” Damon bellowed.  
“You know I do. You heard my confession.” Stefan reminded him calmly and Damon fangs extended in his mouth as he fought to control his anger.  
“I know you still want to fuck me.” Damon blurred to him, grabbing his shoulders and forcing him against the car. “I know you can barely contain yourself.”  
Stefan tried to push him back but Damon snarled at him, holding him in place and cocking his head to seem more menacing.  
“Get off.” Stefan said calmly.  
“I know you’re body’s begging for it right now. I can smell you!” Damon continued to growl and pressed their bodies against each other. “No one can sex you up like I can and I should know!”  
“Damon!” Stefan growled back now angrily.  
“No one will satisfy, not even if someone else was in my body!” Damon spat and Stefan frowned and gazed at him. “Oh yeah, did I forget to mention how many times I fucked you when grandma was in there? Hmmn. Can’t rate her much considering she hadn’t been on her back for a thousand years, but you take whatever you can get when you’re in the mood.”  
Damon taunted and Stefan saw red and threw him backwards against a tree, watching as he crashed down onto the ground in a heap.  
“You’re lying!” He hissed and Damon picked himself up shakily, brushing his arms down. “You wouldn’t have!”  
“Oh I did.” Damon grinned, his face taught with anger. “Ask Klaus if you don’t believe me. He interrupted our tenth round. Always was a buzz kill.”  
“No!” Stefan growled. “You wouldn’t do that to me!”  
“Please, have you forgotten who I am so quickly? You’ve a short memory brother.” Damon said the word ‘brother’ with a hint of disgust in his tone and Stefan backed into the car in disbelief.  
He panted, shaking his head.  
“Now who’s being emotional?” Damon chuckled. “I didn’t think you’d mind. Your body is mated to mine after all. Where was the harm?”  
Stefan held his chest, trying not to imagine the scenario playing out. The old evil brother version of Damon sprang into his mind and he felt pain flare inside of him. The bad Damon Salvatore who’d come back into Mystic Falls and tried to ruin his life there, had been more than capable of something this heinous.  
Damon watched him silently, blocking their connection to hide his feelings. Stefan looked at him wearily.  
“You just want to make me remember how you were before we were in love – when you were my bastard brother. To stop me from wanting that again. That’s why you’re saying this.”  
“That’s deep. I don’t have that much depth little bro.” Damon crossed his arms.  
“That’s not who you were as a brother. That happened when we were vampires, after I’d hurt you and you were lost.”  
Damon snorted and put his hands in his pockets.  
“When we were human first time round…” Stefan continued.  
“Only time round.” Damon corrected.  
“You were brave and kind. You looked after me, raised me, and protected me from father.”  
“So you do remember our human life together then.” Damon said smugly. “Then what the hell is the problem? Why do you need to re-enact it now?!” He spat.  
“When we were human did you want to have sex with me?!” Stefan spat back and Damon looked at him in shock, almost grossed out.  
He opened his mouth to respond but couldn’t think of what to say.  
“No, of course you didn’t – because that would have been disgusting and wrong!”  
“This isn’t wrong Stefan!” Damon tensed.  
“I should show you a mirror right now because the look on your face tells me something different!” Stefan shouted and blurred to him, forcing him back into the tree and subsequently onto the ground as he landed on his rear, looking up at Stefan challengingly.  
“So if I had crept into your chamber at night and tried to suck you with father down the hall playing cards with the neighbours, you would have been perfectly happy with it?” Stefan challenged and Damon frowned.   
Stefan got down onto the ground on his hands and knees and crawled on top of him, forcing him onto the ground in surprise as he continued to taunt.  
“If I had snuck up behind you in the stables…” Stefan grabbed Damon’s hips roughly and slid his hand down the back of his jeans to stroke his entrance and Damon’s eyes widened. “…and stuck my dick into you, you would have wanted it?”  
He slid his finger inside and Damon gasped in surprise.  
“You would have been so desperate for love that you would have fucked your own brother?!” Stefan snarled and forced his finger deeper inside and Damon tensed up – feeling violated by the intrusion rather than comfortable with it as usual.  
“If you had been fine with all of that then I would have had you castrated!” Stefan growled. “I would have had your brain looked at, because there would have been something wrong with you!”  
Damon pushed him off of him and punched him hard in the jaw. Stefan fell back and chuckled uncontrollably as a trail of blood slid down his jaw from his mouth. Damon stood up, righting his clothes and shivering in discomfort.  
“You were right to question this when we were in Chicago.” Stefan continued to cackle. “Funny how you’re always allowed to fuck up and hurt me and question me, but when I need to do it you hate me!”  
Damon shook his head, his cheeks glowing.  
“Maybe it’s my turn to be the bad brother for once – to be the one that’s allowed to make mistakes and fuck everything up! Maybe I need to be you, Damon!” Stefan burst into hysterical laughing and Damon watched him as anxiety filled him.  
“I want to think about myself before anyone else and do what the hell I feel like doing.” He sat up, wiping his chin with his sleeve.  
“Then go.” Damon said.  
Stefan stopped chuckling and looked at him intriguingly.  
“Go and figure out what the hell you want. Be me if you like and see how far it gets you!”  
“Maybe I will!”  
“Go and screw a few hundred people – hell I’ll even give you enough of my blood to fuck off on a world-wide bender for six months.” Damon threatened.  
“How thoughtful. Maybe if I screw enough people I won’t need you anymore.” Stefan stroked his chin and pondered.  
Damon bit back a flash of pain at that statement and felt a beat of Stefan’s regret through their connection. He took an unsteady breath and licked his lips as Stefan’s expression flickered – breaking his aura of bravado as he saw how much Damon was affected.  
“Good luck coming back from that, because I can tell you this for sure brother – I am not you. I don’t have it in me to save you time and time again, to never lose hope that I can help you, to always be able to forgive.” He whispered and Stefan sighed and looked to the ground. “I don’t have your heart.”  
“Damon…” Stefan sighed, remorsefully.  
“Of course if you’re really being me then you won’t care, because I only care about myself. Everyone else is just fodder.”  
Stefan looked at him apologetically, but he continued.  
“When we were human it was my duty to look after you. You were just a kid. You weren’t a man when we turned. I would never have felt anything but brotherly love and duty towards you because of that.”  
Stefan studied him, intrigued to hear Damon’s end of this relationship finally.  
“When we became vampires I hated you so much I wanted to kill you. I tried a few times and bailed because in the end you were the only other one who understood me. You forgave and forgave and that cycle fuelled me.”  
Stefan nodded at him in encouragement to continue and Damon began to shake with the effort of pouring out his heart.  
“I needed that fuel to survive being this. If I hadn’t then I would have burned up in my own anger and hate – I had to have you to direct it at.”  
“What changed?” Stefan asked gently.  
“Almost dying. You had me, right there in your arms in our cellar – a helpless sack of nothing and I knew you were finally going to get rid of me. I knew your forgiveness was gone. You were done.”  
Damon paced slowly back and forwards and Stefan just sat quietly, waiting.  
“The blood thirst made me want you and it freaked me out. I thought it would go away. It might have.” He looked to him. “It might all have been temporary.”  
“So why wasn’t it?”  
“You wouldn’t let it be.” He said simply, stopping in front of him.  
“My fault again.” Stefan huffed.  
“Not because you tried to talk me round or hold onto me.” Damon said and Stefan frowned at him. “Not because you tried to force me to be your mate.”  
“I did try to force you. I remember.”  
Damon smirked.  
“How long have you known me?” He raised an eyebrow. “And how many times have you seen me forced to do something I don’t want to do?”  
“I forced you into things before. You said I always do.” Stefan challenged.   
“Don’t think for a second that I would play something like this out unless I actually wanted to Stefan. You might have forced some of the decisions in my life but if I had changed my mind about them later, then I would do what I wanted. Always, because that’s who I am.”  
“What are you telling me?” Stefan huffed.  
“That the reason I mated with you, the reason I stayed with you even when I had my doubts in Chicago, the reason I came back to find you when you left me…” he paused and licked his lips, “…wasn’t because I needed you or felt lost without you or whatever other mated crap we’ve gone through. It’s because…” he sighed and closed his eyes. “The moment you decided to store me away, you stopped being my kid brother.”  
“What do you mean?” Stefan sat up straighter.  
“My human brother wouldn’t have ever given up. He wouldn’t have.” Damon gave a sad smile. “I saw the change in your eyes during the blood. The old you, might have had sex with me purely because of the blood - yeah. There wouldn’t be many of us who could resist that, but you wouldn’t have ever told me you loved me unless you’d given up on your brother.”  
Stefan opened his mouth and blew out a breath of air in consternation.  
“You’d given up on your brother, you didn’t want him back. I’d opened myself up too much in front of you and you knew that the brother you’d been trying to save over and over again was gone. He died a few decades after I became a vampire. I just have his face now. I don’t think you’d ever really believed that until you saw inside of me and it was the final curtain call.”  
“I did still see you as a brother.” Stefan argued. “I just, I didn’t want to lose you and the sex made me feel so close to you. Close enough that I could show you the love you’d been hurting for. Hoping that maybe I could make you better – make you who you were before all of the hurt and hate.”  
“You’ve convinced yourself of that for years now, but that’s not the reason.” Damon sat down on the ground across from him. “Since when would having sex with a sibling help anything? The concept of it wouldn’t have entered your mind beyond the physical act. If you had still thought of me like a brother you’d have been as grossed out and angry as I was after that first time.”  
“So you admit that you felt repelled after we had sex?”  
“Yes.” Damon said confidently. “I wanted to get as far away from you as possible.”  
Stefan’s chest ached at the admission.  
“And so…you tried to fight me.”  
“I did, but I was fighting the blood too and I knew I couldn’t win.”  
“So you didn’t have any feelings of love for me at that point?”  
“No.” Damon said unapologetic. “I just wanted the sex and intimacy.”  
Stefan nodded and swallowed bile, looking to the ground.  
“You must have thought I was crazy.” He whispered, grieved that he had been alone in these feelings initially.  
“Yeah.” Damon breathed and licked his lips. “But, I take what I want without caring.”  
“But...” Stefan struggled, “…it became more for you. When did that happen?”  
Damon fidgeted with the laces on his shoes as Stefan’s anxiety levels rose. Had he been alone in his love for a long time? Had Damon just pretended and went along with it?  
“I can’t put my finger on it.” He admitted. “When you were inside me, telling me you loved me…I could see that you meant it. I just let you for a while, enjoying the sex. It’d been so long since I’d been able to be that relaxed with someone, not having to put on a show during it. You made me feel safe.” He looked to him.  
Stefan gave a small smile.  
“I never felt safe around my brother. I only felt hate. Now, here you were – not the person I thought you were. You were harder, stronger. You didn’t need me like the human you. You weren’t him anymore.”  
“I still feel like I am sometimes.”  
“I wanted to see you as the brother I hated and who’d wrecked my chances with Katherine. After a few days I realised that guy was gone.” He paused. “I couldn’t get my head around it. I started to let you in more and more until I started to want to feel what you were feeling.”  
Stefan brought his knees up and rested his face in them as he tried to gather his thoughts.  
“Then you told me you loved me.”   
Stefan recalled that moment, after days of exhaustive love making and aching for Damon to say it back. Finally Damon had whispered the words. He felt his heart flutter at the memory.  
“A brother act would be all I’d have now Stefan. Your brother died and I would just be trying to play his part for you now. I played the act for years after I stopped feeling like my human self because if you weren’t still feeling like my brother, then you would have forgot me. By remaining the ghost of the human Damon, duty tied you to me and I needed someone, even if only to have someone to blame.”  
Stefan looked at him, trying to understand.  
“Truth is, when I left that cellar to feed on Caroline, I couldn’t play the act anymore. Every time I’ve tried, has been a show I’ve put on to hurt you.”  
Stefan put his face into his legs again and Damon’s eyes filled with tears.  
“So you see brother, I can’t be anything less than your mate because that’s all I am now. I put my ghosts to grave as soon as I knew you loved me for who I am now. If that’s not going to work for you then…”   
Damon’s throat dried up and he hung his head, wiping his cheeks discretely of tears and Stefan lay down on his back and stared up at the sky.  
“Your priest told you to see us through Vida’s eyes.” He mumbled and Stefan merely blinked in response to show that he was listening.  
“What she sees are two people who love each other so much they will die without each other. One day she’ll realise what we went through to get her here and no one can say that the love that took, is wrong. We might be deformed mutant monsters, but she was made from love – even as animals we felt love, even though we shouldn’t have been capable of it.”  
Stefan exhaled slowly and deeply.  
“When we were animals we didn’t know who we were. All we had was instinct. I wanted you because you are so good and kind and brave.” He said shakily.  
“I wanted you because you were fierce but loyal and alive.” Stefan whispered. “So alive.”  
“That was all we needed. If there was still something inherent in us that was meant to stop this from happening then it would have happened then.” Damon reasoned. “You didn’t have to mate with me after Nathan. You chose to. You were riding your heat out fine on your own.”  
Stefan nodded in agreement.  
“I wanted cubs so badly. I wanted your cubs.” He whispered.  
“You had my cub.” Damon smiled and Stefan slid his hand over his abdomen, remembering the feeling of Vida growing inside of him. “Vida was made in love by two innocents – not two evil, incestuous, homosexual vampire monsters and that’s all that she sees.”  
They both paused for a few minutes and Damon bit his lip as he looked down at Stefan expression of longing.  
“I’ll give you as many more as you want.” He said gently and Stefan sat up and looked at him. “We can have more kids. They won’t make up for the ones we’ve lost, that you’ve lost, but it doesn’t have to be the end Stefan. Everything is possible for us because we don’t conform into any boxes.”  
“She will.” Stefan croaked.  
“She’ll figure things out for herself, like we all do. It won’t be as painful for her as it was for us though because she’ll grow up knowing that things don’t always play out like the world tells you they will. She’ll know that from day one and she’ll be better for it.”  
“I’m afraid.” Stefan croaked. “I’m afraid that we’re too different, that we’ll confuse her.”  
“She’s not the only kid to have two daddies. Right away she’ll get that it’s ok to be different. Isn’t that better?” Damon asked genuinely and Stefan thought on it. “She’s growing up knowing that creatures like us are real too. There’s no coddling her.”  
Stefan remained silent, thinking and Damon gave a silent huff, feeling tired.  
“I don’t want a life where I can’t touch you and kiss you.” Damon admitted. “I’d rather we break the bond than live like that.”  
Stefan looked to him, narrowing his eyes.  
“If you need to talk to someone – a shrink or support group or something, then I’m in. I’ll be there, but…I need my mate.” Damon admitted, averting his eyes.  
Stefan bowed his head.  
“Let’s find the middle for real this time, little blood machine. No one controls the other, let’s just…” Damon patted his hand on the dirt beneath him as he sighed, “…let’s just be together on this, side by side for once.”  
Stefan sucked in a breath and stood up slowly. Damon stuck his fingers into the dirt, afraid to look up at Stefan’s expression. Stefan walked slowly to the car and opened the door and Damon closed his eyes and braced himself, when he heard a thud behind him. He turned around to look and saw Stefan arranging a large travel rug onto the ground. He frowned.  
“What are you doing?” He asked and Stefan smoothed the rug out, patting it down and looked to him.  
Stefan offered a hand out to him wordlessly. Damon turned around fully and took it. Stefan pulled him to him onto the rug and brought their foreheads together. Damon closed his eyes and exhaled.  
“I love you.” He whispered and felt Stefan’s hands stroke his back between the shoulder blades.  
He brought their mouths together and Stefan didn’t pull away, rather the opposite as he wound his arms around Damon tightly and opened his mouth. Damon relaxed into the kiss, desperate for it not to be the last one they’d share. He inhaled deeply and worked at Stefan’s lips and tongue, giving the best performance of his life and he felt Stefan’s heart race excitedly. He pushed Stefan onto his back and climbed on top of him, stroking his sides and around to his back.  
Desire. Want. Want you want you want you…mate, my Stefan. Stefan…  
Stefan moaned into his mouth and tilted his face back until Damon disengaged from his lips and trailed his mouth down to his neck and jaw. His breath caught in his throat at the tingling and desperation of his body to be comforted and to join. Damon was scenting him and grabbing at him wildly, rocking their bodies at the force and Stefan brought his legs up and to either side of Damon’s body, holding him in between his thighs.  
He’d had so many thoughts racing since he’d awoken back in this time and he hadn’t been able to slow them down to understand and analyse them. He hadn’t been able to sort through the jumble or scrapbook of memories and images in his mind. He’d felt adrift in a sea of information that he could grasp at but not hold on to.  
He’d needed a lifeline, a metaphorical rope to bring him back on course and help him gather the information he needed along the way. The priest had helped him believe that there was a light at the end of the tunnel and there were paths that would lead him there. He just needed to allow himself to go find them.  
Damon’s revelations had cleared so much of the jumble tonight. Despite the fact that they’d shared their minds so many times through their connection, he’d never delved into the beginning of their relationship like this. Perhaps he’d been afraid to. What he’d swept under the carpet as being a wild experience in the cellar that had changed them both and enabled their relationship, hadn’t been as smooth a transition as he remembered it. He remembered that he had went into the feelings of love and desire to have a relationship relatively early on into their trauma, but he’d always expected the same for Damon. All of Damon’s pushing him away, questioning everything – he’d always assumed that he’d responded like that because he couldn’t accept that he’d fallen for Stefan so quickly and easily too. Now Stefan knew that that wasn’t true at all.  
Damon hadn’t loved him for a great part of their entrapment. Damon had been taking what he wanted like he always had. Unbelievably, despite that fact, he had consciously began to allow feelings – because he of all people had been able to evolve and let go of their human selves when Stefan had convinced himself that they were still the same. Now that he thought on that, he realised how silly he had been to be able to convince himself that they were both the same human men they had been and that this was happening because he wanted to hold onto that bond. No. Damon was right. If he had truly still seen Damon as his brother, there would have been no way that he would have allowed love or that he’d even have felt anything but lust.   
Stefan’s thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of Damon’s fangs breaking the skin of his neck and he arched upwards and moaned appreciatively.  
“Oh god!” He drooled.  
The wave was intense, thick and intoxicating. He hadn’t felt it boggle his mind like this for a long time. Damon drank a few drops and licked the wound, causing a little contraction of pleasure to fill Stefan’s loins. He gasped again. Damon was doing the little bites that caused the most pleasurable build up. He bit Stefan again and took his time, making Stefan squirm against him.  
His stomach pooled with heat and he opened his legs wider, lost in the sensation as he closed his eyes.   
Love, love, love love…  
Damon channelled and he rocked his hips upwards – the fear of being penetrated not even entering his mind as he felt the constriction of his clothing begin to irritate him. He turned his mouth towards Damon’s ear and whispered his name huskily, flexing his hips again and Damon pulled his fangs out and licked his mouth dirtily.  
“Remind me who we are.” He hummed, licking the taste of his blood from his own lips and Damon’s eyes seemed to flash with excitement.  
Perhaps they were flashing – who knew with their wolf aspects. Stefan opened his mouth to whisper again when Damon pulled his jeans down and tossed them aside. Stefan grinned and undid his buckle, leaving Damon to fist his manhood for a few seconds. The smell around their bodies was glorious – it was as though they were having sex in the middle of a botanical garden.  
He unzipped himself and pulled his jeans down, never breaking contact with Damon’s eyes as he did so and Damon pulled them from his ankles and tossed them next to his. Stefan sat up and ripped Damon’s shirt open, leaning into his neck as Damon’s body pulsed. He licked his artery, delighting in the beat under his tongue and began to feed. Damon’s leaned forward into him and had to place a hand on the ground to support himself.  
The hot blood poured down Stefan’s throat and he sucked harder, gripping Damon tight against him until Damon had to release his erection and support himself with both hands. Stefan’s hunger was demanding. He drank for several minutes, gulping the nectar until Damon wilted and lay back on to the ground, pulling Stefan with him. He should probably stop now or Damon wouldn’t be able to maintain his erection.  
He pulled his mouth away breathing heavily and drunk and looked at how fucked Damon already appeared to be. His pupils were so dilated he looked a little terrifying and primal and his body was covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Stefan rocked their groins together, pleased to feel Damon was still hard and moved down to kiss his mouth. Damon opened his legs wide, letting Stefan drop in between his thighs and began to gyrate.  
Stefan’s entrance was pulsing in need, the smell of his fluid already heady in the air. He should roll them over. Damon slid his hand down his back as they kissed passionately and cupped Stefan’s rear. He circled his finger against his entrance and collected some of Stefan’s slick and Stefan jumped in surprise. He growled into Damon’s mouth.  
Damon put a hand on his chest and gently separated their mouths until Stefan stopped kissing him and looked down at his face. Damon said nothing, but slid his hand between their bodies and inserted his fingers to prepare himself. Stefan grinned in agreement and licked at his nipples – managing to remind himself that Damon didn’t have the breasts of the female sexual partners that he was used to most recently.  
Damon arched, squirming and Stefan took over, gripping Damon’s hips and pushing until Damon’s legs were bent up to his chest. He licked at his entrance, holding him in place until he couldn’t wait anymore. He pulled Damon forward and entered him. Damon grinned and fluttered his eyes closed as Stefan began to move. He couldn’t pretend that he didn’t want to fuck the living daylights out of his mate. Their bodies had been calling out for each other all day. Even though they’d had sex last night, it hadn’t been joining. Stefan had been compelled by the smell of their pheromones to do so but now he was committed. He let himself go, snapping his hips back and forth all the faster in response to Damon’s cries and whispered pleas to go deeper.  
He didn’t last long and poured into Damon’s body, crying out as Damon rested his hands besides his head and panted, sweat dripping down his face and around to his neck.   
“Sorry, god…I just…” Stefan began to apologise out of embarrassment that he had expired so quickly but Damon just chuckled and smiled.  
Stefan pulled out of him and leaned down, taking Damon’s manhood into his mouth and giving it the attention it deserved. Damon’s chuckling died out and his stomach tensed under the glorious torture. Damon struggled to remain still as Stefan sucked him deep and he bucked his hips helplessly and grabbed Stefan’s hair.  
“Stefan…” he cried out and then stilled as he filled Stefan’s mouth.  
Stefan wiped his mouth and looked down at his mate. He looked completely wrung out. Perhaps the stress they had both been through had taken more of a toll on their bodies than they’d realised. Damon’s eyes were almost crossed as he tried to stay awake and Stefan lay on top of him again, folding his arms around his back.  
“Hmmn.” Damon mumbled and Stefan gave him a few pecks on the lips as his eyelashes fluttered. “Was that a goodbye fuck?” He whispered and Stefan raised himself on his elbows to study his face.  
He stroked the side of Damon’s cheek, tucking his black locks behind his ear and sighing. Damon opened his eyes and looked at him.  
“No.” He said and Damon’s eyes widened. “That was…I’m sorry.”  
“Sorry?” Damon repeated.  
“I’m sorry that our lives are always so complicated and painful.”  
Damon reached up and cupped his face.  
“It’s not your fault little blood machine. It’s just life.”  
“It’s hard sometimes, to remember that I’m not the only one in pain. I feel like I’m in a bubble and I don’t see anyone else. I guess I just needed some perspective. I needed to understand why we love each other when it goes against nature.”  
Damon blinked at him.  
“I guess, I needed to know that it wasn’t because we are monsters, that our bond isn’t a product of us being inherently bad.” Stefan explained.  
“And?” Damon frowned.  
“I still don’t understand it.” He admitted. “But I know it’s not incest anymore. We aren’t those two brothers anymore.”  
“No.” Damon nodded in agreement.  
“Maybe I’ll never understand it.” Stefan gave a sad smile. “But I want it.”  
Damon searched his face.  
“I want you more than oxygen.” He added and Damon pulled him down so they could rub their noses together. “I’m not going to torture myself or you over it.”  
Damon nuzzled into Stefan’s ear and breathed him in.  
“Let’s go home.” Damon whispered into his ear and they slowly rose and dressed once again, looking u to the stars as they did.  
Damon felt a contentedness fill him and he breathed in relaxation. Stefan wasn’t ok, he was far from it but at least now they could stand side by side and tackle what had happened to him. At least now they could begin.


	52. Chapter 52

Chapter 52 TH

Things were getting there, they would get better gradually. Stefan really began to believe that. In accepting that the human Damon was long gone, his body now merely providing the shell for the man he loved, he felt happier in his own sense of himself too. The original Stefan Salvatore had died long ago. His most recent human life was very much still with him, but perhaps that wasn’t something he should be afraid of. The man he’d been this time round, had lived a full life into adulthood, had gotten to have those important years of development and self-reflection that he had been denied as a human before. Before, he’d learned to become a man as a blood sucking monster and that had shaped a lot of the negative ways that he thought about things. Now being able to reconcile a human life where he had been a husband, a father, a valued man of medicine - was worth so much that he didn’t care to forget it. He’d had a second chance at developing into a good person and he was grateful. He wanted to learn how to cherish those memories, rather than let them control the life he would be adjusting to now.  
He’d gone to a few support group meetings and oddly, although his own experiences of war, madness and trauma had been from a very different time – there was nothing new in war. War was ugly and insidious. The after effects of which seemed to be not so dissimilar in the accounts of one member of the group from another. The circumstances of war were different for each person in his group, but what became clear the longer they all shared, was that it didn’t matter how the war had happened, for what reason, in which country or through which government. In the end the results were much the same. Death, loss, grief and anger. Those emotions they all shared.  
As he listened to stories being recalled about time spent overseas on active duties, he couldn’t help but see his own version running through his head concurrently with the tales. Some days it seemed as though he could close his eyes and be back there. Some days he thought on the men at his hospital – killing themselves over their war madness. It hurt a little to think that everything he’d accomplished there hadn’t been real. He’d put so much of his heart and soul into it. He’d cared about little else at times where his own sanity was jeopardised. He wanted to have some sense of purpose in his life again.  
When he’d first come back into this area, it had been because he had seen Elena. Everything had spawned from her and then it had been all about he and Damon and where they’d wanted to share their lives together. It was hard at times to have your own identity when you were mated. It wasn’t like marriage and yet he couldn’t explain why it differed to someone who wasn’t mated. His only experience of married life had been from a time where the men had all of the power and control. He had remained much unchanged by being a husband – it was his wife’s life that had changed utterly. She had accommodated him and not much else.  
Being with Damon was different anyway. Damon wasn’t the gentler sex. He was a headstrong and often impulsive man. Perhaps if they’d been married it would have made no difference either due to their personalities. All Stefan knew for sure, was that he felt as though he needed something else that was just his.  
He sat down and relaxed comfortably by the bonfire that his pack had built and smiled as a few of the wolves played some guitars and sang. It felt good to be part of a community again. Even as a human he hadn’t felt that. He’d been somewhat of an outsider after the war. Although the Mystic Falls parish honoured him for his service, there was always an element of fear in them when he returned home. They could see that the boy he had been was gone. Replaced by a man who had seen untold horrors and to those in contact with him regularly, they didn’t care to know what he had seen. Most civilians didn’t. War was something for soldiers. They remained detached from it somewhat. Yes they felt the effects and loss of some of their own families, the fear of losing their way of life and the country they had witnessed being built around them, but they didn’t really want to know the gory details. That had pained him at first when he’d returned. Whenever he had seen someone in a rage over their finances or their gambling or something superficial like the jealousy of a spurned love interest, he’d almost lost his mind. He’d been unable to comprehend the things that normal people had thought were important enough for this sort of emotional reaction when there were men lying dying on the battlefield, being sewn up or cast onto the piles of bodies that it had been his job to assemble. Knowledge of his variety opened his eyes to what was really important and it had been a terrible transition to become part of a community of people living normal, war-free night’s sleep again.  
Still, that was in the past.  
Now he was in a place where he could talk about those feelings and memories without judgement. He wished that he had thought on starting a support network as a doctor, however at the time something like that without some psychiatric guidance may have made the men much worse, feeding into the delusions and hallucinations they still had and psychiatry hadn’t taken shape as a medical tool at that time.  
“Hey.” Nathan bumped his arm with a bottle of beer in offering and startled him out of his thoughts.  
“Hey.” He smiled back at him and took the bottle.  
Nathan sat down on the log next to him, staring into the fire as the other continued to mingle, handing out food.  
“You look like you’re a thousand miles away.” Nathan chuckled.  
“Not as many as a thousand.” He smiled back and took a long sip from the beer.  
“How are you doing?”  
“I’m getting there.” He smiled again and looked to Nathan, noticing how relaxed he appeared.  
It was nice to see Nathan looking happy for once. Nisha walked past them, winking at Stefan and handed Nathan a bowl of chips. He winked back and took them gladly, beginning to crunch away at them as his eyes followed her path away from them. Stefan watched him and smiled to himself.  
She’s quite a woman isn’t she.  
He channelled and Nathan almost choked, coughing in surprise at Stefan’s use of their connection. He hadn’t channelled properly since he’d come back. Stefan chuckled and slapped his back until he recovered and looked at him.  
“You…” he coughed once more, “…you’re channelling again.”  
It would appear so.  
Nathan chuckled, throwing an arm around his neck and pulling him in for a one armed hug. Stefan slapped his back affectionately and they parted grinning.  
“It’s good to have you back.”   
Stefan smiled and gave a nod.  
“So…you and Nisha then?” Stefan asked discretely and Nathan smile dropped a little.  
“No.” He shook his head and looked around to make sure that no one was eavesdropping before he continued, “I’d like more but…she’s not ready for that.”  
Stefan’s smile dropped and he thought on that, trying to remember her story.  
“Her husband.” Nathan reminded. “And then the little one. It’s too soon. I don’t think she’s really had enough time to process it yet.”  
Stefan squeezed his arm and nodded. If anyone, he knew what grief for a lost family was like, the loss of a future you had mapped out and planned for in your mind.  
“It’ll get easier.” He said and Nathan looked at him hopefully. “She won’t feel like this forever.”  
Nathan nodded and looked into the glowing embers of the fire again, his gaze transfixed.  
“You just, have to be here for her. Someday she’ll be ready to move on and live again.”  
“She’s worth waiting for.” Nathan said.  
“Yeah.” Stefan smiled and looked to the fire too.  
“What about you?” Nathan prompted. “Are you ready to move on?”  
Stefan searched his face for a second, considering his answer.  
“I don’t know.” He answered and drank from his beer.  
“New York isn’t so far away.” Nathan commented and began eating his chips again and Stefan smiled.  
“I guess.”  
“You think you three are ready?”  
Stefan scuffed his foot into the dirt beneath him and shrugged.  
“I don’t know. A lot has changed and I’m just starting to feel like I can cope with it all.”  
Nathan nodded silently.  
“My heat might change things for us again.” He said and Nathan looked to his feet.  
“Last time, I tried to control it, thinking we could and it blew up in our faces.” He continued as Nathan sat listening. “This time round we are different people. I’m different I guess. I don’t know what I will feel like if I have a heat.”  
“Maybe it’s best to stay then, with your family around you.” Nathan mumbled in hope.  
“We’ve put them through enough danger already.” Stefan shook his head but remained uncommitted to what he would do if not stay here.  
“Welcome to being a wolf brother.” Nathan smiled and looked at him. “It aint as…easy as all that vampire stuff.” He teased and Stefan chuckled.  
They sat for a few more hours, talking and laughing as normal pack life settled around them. Damon’s absence didn’t go unnoticed but he knew it was fine. Damon and he were finding time to be alone these days – something they both felt they needed. It was amazing to be a couple, be a family, but it was important not to lose sense of yourself too.  
Vida was walking now and was the delight of the rest of the pack. She was a quick learner and the other children were actually learning from her. Stefan grinned as he watched Ian walk her over to him.  
“Hello angel.” He cooed as she reached up for him.  
He swept down and lifted her, sitting her in his lap as she giggled. She’d learned a few more words, mainly ‘No’, but she was coming on in spades. He bounced her as she liked and she squealed and leaned against his chest. This next heat was going to be tricky on her. Last time she’d been so small, so babyish and therefore easy to put to sleep for the time that they needed, but now she was so much more alert and active and it worried him.  
He’d begun to recognise the signs in Damon this time around – he was hormonal and grumpy. He scratched at his chest a lot and was extra sensitive around his nipples. He couldn’t smell the change in his own smell but they had worked out that it was likely he would be fertile again in a week or so, based on Damon’s body reaction.   
Damon had told him about the fake heat that grandma had had in his body and they hadn’t been sure whether it would distance the next true one. Unfortunately not. Still, this time he wasn’t going to fight it like they had before. He had to just let it happen, as much as he was terrified of it. Since he and Damon had begun to get to know each other again, he hadn’t been penetrated. It was something that Damon had been careful of, almost terrified that if he tried to, that Stefan would panic and change his mind about them remaining in a physical relationship.  
Stefan wasn’t sure how he would feel and he hadn’t wanted to test it. That night weeks ago when they had made love under the stars after he’d been to confession, he hadn’t felt the fear as their bodies had helped them join, but now that they were sleeping together every day out of love and normal desire, he did feel unsure.  
He was afraid that he’d feel less like a man – a feeling he recalled having before grandma had attacked them and taken over again. Grandma. He’d struggled not to punch Damon a few times when hearing about what had happened between them. Damon hadn’t known what had happened to get his body into a fake heat but he’d recognised the symptoms. He’d had no choice but to try and end the heat as his body had also been kick-started into producing milk too and there was no other way to end it if not by combat. Damon hadn’t wanted to hurt his body and had agreed to sleep with her instead.  
It was a bitter pill to chew but he understood that Damon had had no choice. The hardest thing to deal with was the explanation of why the forced heat had happened – something he had had to practically pry out of Nathan. He decided to keep the tale about the rapist wolves to himself and not tell Damon about that for fear he’d go off and kill the rest of their pack. He’d deal with the horror of it in his own time.  
He jumped in surprise as he felt a hand squeeze his shoulder and he turned and saw Damon cooing over his shoulder at their angel baby. She jumped up, calling to him and Stefan handed her up to him.  
He swung her around in his arms and she giggled. Stefan watched, his heart warming.  
“Someone’s due a feed before she gets cranky!” Damon said in a sing-song voice and pretended to bite her fingers.  
She squealed and fell back against him, smiling widely to show off her baby teeth. She had so many now.   
“You want my blood tonight?” Stefan asked and Damon shook his head and gave him a smile, before walking away towards their lodge.  
Stefan turned back to the fire feeling happy and content. Vida was such a happy baby. Damon had been right. What she saw wasn’t two incestuous brothers, it was merely her parents who loved her and each other with equal measure. She was fine. She would be fine.  
The other children began to tire and have tantrums and Stefan chuckled, loving how low maintenance Vida was and he rose to his feet. Nathan looked up at him knowingly.  
“Give her a goodnight kiss from uncle wolfman.” He said and Stefan patted his shoulder on the way back to his lodge.  
Inside the lodge he could hear Vida crying and he frowned. What had happened in this short space of time? He went into the lodge and looked around, seeing Vida in a wooden chair with her harness tied around her waist to hold her on. They hadn’t bought a high chair as yet, so this was the solution.  
“Hey baby. What’s all the fuss about?” He cooed and she blinked tears down her face and gurned. “Where’s daddy?”  
Damon walked in holding a bowl of what looked like mashed potato and Stefan stared at it in surprise. Damon sat down in front of Vida with the bowl and lifted the spoon.  
“Ok, this is the deal. You eat some of my amazing mashed potato here and daddy will give you your bottle. Ok?” He bargained and Stefan chuckled, realising what he was trying to do.  
They still hadn’t managed to coax Vida into eating real food yet and they had both come to the agreement that this was one human thing that they must train her in if any. Half vampire, half wolf human she may be and able to live outside of the box but she had to be able to conform to this large part of human nature if she were to live in this world.  
“No!” She shouted and hit his hand away as she tried to break out of her harness.  
“Vida.” Stefan tried to sound authoritative and she looked to him and began to cry again, guarding her mouth with a closed fist.  
Damon waited patiently, not taking his eyes from hers and she wailed and kicked her legs, her fangs and veins showing. She knew what she wanted and it wasn’t mashed potato that was for sure. It was difficult to reason with her and Stefan usually ended up giving in, but they had to tackle this difficult phase with her.  
“Vida, open up.” Damon pushed the spoon towards her again and she turned her face away.  
Annoyance.  
Damon channelled and she continued to cry.  
“Maybe we should…” Stefan began when Damon stood up and walked away from her, taking a seat on the sofa.  
Stefan looked to him and he raised his eyebrows to demonstrate that Stefan should join him. Vida looked to them both, sniffling and confused and Damon exhaled.  
“Fine then. I’ll just share it with dadda.” Damon said and popped the spoon into his mouth, making hums of enjoyment and Stefan watched Vida out of the corner of his eye.  
She was watching, frowning.  
“Mmmmn. So good. You want some dadda?” Damon licked the spoon and loaded it for Stefan and he played along, opening his mouth wide and letting Damon feed him.  
Vida squeezed her toes and leaned forward slightly as she watched them eating.  
“Wow that’s the best mash I’ve ever had.” Stefan said with enthusiasm.  
They fed each other a few more spoonful’s, smirking at each other as Vida began to shout out and reached towards them. Damon smouldered his eyes at him as he leaned forward and brushed some potato from the corner of Stefan’s mouth with his thumb. Stefan chuckled.  
“I’m pretty sure mashed potato doesn’t have the same romantic effect as ice cream or something.” He commented and Damon chuckled in agreement.  
“Then we get some ice cream for later.” He said huskily, scratching at his chest absent-mindedly.  
Stefan inhaled and smelled the roses and yet he didn’t feel urgent. It was coming soon and they would figure out how to enjoy this heat.  
Vida screamed unhappily and they looked towards her. She watched them and reached out her hands towards the food. Damon smirked and turned to her, offering the bowl out towards her.  
“You want some?” He teased and she gurned and stretched her hands out.  
He went to her and sat down once more, legs crossed before her and offered the spoon to her. This time she opened her mouth as she’d seen them do and Damon popped the food inside. She scrunched her face up and moved her tongue around it, experimenting with the texture and Stefan chuckled as he watched.  
She had no idea what to make of it and looked to Damon questioningly. He encouraged her throughout and she stuck her fingers into her mouth.  
“Tastes yummy huh?” Damon cooed and she coughed as she swallowed some of it.  
Not as good as you do.  
Stefan channelled and Damon looked over his shoulder at him.  
Your blood tastes like orange chocolate.  
Damon smirked and winked at him, before turning back and feeding Vida another spoonful. Again she couldn’t get her head around it but she did swallow what she didn’t smear all over her face and fingers. This was good. This was a start. Stefan wondered how Klaus and Beth had introduced food to Toby. Maybe they should ask them for some advisement on that as Toby seemed to have quite an appetite.   
Damon fed her a few more spoonful’s before she batted his hand away and began to cry. She’d had enough but it was good. Damon handed the bowl to Stefan and cleaned her face, releasing her from her harness and lifting her up as she yawned and lay back in his arms.  
Stefan took the bowl to the sink and rinsed it out, setting it aside to dry. They could try again tomorrow to get her to eat something else. They’d learn with her. He tidied her chair and some of the mess away as he listened to Damon singing softly to her the song their Mammy had sung to them. He felt his heart squeeze. As a human first time around he hadn’t appreciated Mammy as much as he did now. She had literally come to save him like an angel. Maybe that’s what she was now – she hadn’t said otherwise. Now remembering her songs would remind him of how lucky he had been to have two separate chances at being human.  
He smiled to himself and sat down on the sofa relaxing as Damon walked the floor with her, tiring her out as she chattered and gurned in tiredness. He could hear her sucking, so she obviously had a bottle of their blood now. She’d be content in knowing that if she ate the real food, she would get what she wanted afterwards. They’d just have to reduce the amounts of their blood each time and test whether blood was something she could live without and still thrive.   
Stefan lay down and closed his eyes, breathing deeply. He must have fallen asleep as he Damon was suddenly kneeling at his side and brushing his nose along his jaw and into his neck. He opened his eyes and hummed.  
Baby asleep.  
Damon channelled.  
He nodded and Damon climbed on top of him and kissed his softly. He wound his arms around Damon’s back and rubbed small circles over his shoulder blades.  
Got a present for you.  
Damon channelled and separated their mouths.  
What? Why?  
Damon grinned and sat back on Stefan’s pelvis, looking excited.  
“What are you up to?” Stefan narrowed his eyes in jest.  
Damon began to open his shirt slowly and Stefan watched his fingers, feeling his body begin to thrum. They already had sex today twice. It was crazy how their bodies seemed to have an unlimited capacity for joining. He rocked his hips and grinned back at him and Damon removed his shirt and placed his hands on Stefan’s hips to stop his movements. Stefan stopped rocking in surprise.  
There was a flash of nerves in Damon’s expression but he licked his lips and inhaled.  
“What’s wrong?” Stefan whispered and Damon closed his eyes for a second and ran his thumb over one of his nipples.  
Stefan felt a jolt in his loins as Damon’s cheeks reddened and he looked to his chest again. Slowly, Damon teased the nipple again and a small amount of fluid emerged. The smell hit the air like lightning and Stefan sat up immediately and held him, leaning forward and closing his lips and tongue around the soft bud. Damon gave a small moan and held him to him.  
Stefan couldn’t help his loss of control and he suckled, while stroking Damon’s bare skin. The taste of this special milk was out of this world. This time he didn’t feel guilty for taking some as Vida was getting bigger and she could now eat other foods. He lathered his tongue against Damon’s flesh until Damon shuddered, so he pushed him down onto his back and climbed over him now, teasing the other nipple as he sucked the nectar from one.  
Damon’s heart beat increased and he melted like marshmallow into the cushions of the sofa, until he arched his back and released in his jeans. Stefan pulled back, swiping his tongue over the now fluid coated virgin nipple and Damon smiled and closed his eyes.  
“Happy Valentine’s day.” Damon whispered.


	53. Chapter 53

Chapter 53 TH

Stefan chuckled silently to himself as he stepped out of the shower and looked into their bedroom. Vida had been playing with Nisha for a few hours today and so they’d had the place to themselves. Stefan’s heat was nearing and so he’d been perhaps a little more excitable than usual. Add to that, the taste of Damon’s milk and he’d been a little unstoppable in the bedroom department.  
He walked towards the bed, towel drying his hair and grinning at the way Damon was sprawled across it with his legs all tangled amongst the sheets, completely out for the count. He’d had him as many times as he could before Damon’s body couldn’t cope with any more pleasure and he’d became boneless and exhausted. He would probably sleep for a few hours. Stefan on the other hand was already sporting a new erection. He squeezed himself in wonder. Was it just because he was nearing their heat again? Somehow he didn’t believe that. It was the milk – if that was indeed what Damon was producing. It had to be.  
He pulled on his jeans as he replayed their lovemaking in his mind.  
“God, you’re so warm.” Stefan had panted into the back of Damon’s neck as he moved inside of him, holding him pinned against the wall.  
Damon hummed in his throat and flexed his hips back at him.  
“I’m going to eat you.” Stefan growled, thrusting harder and bit the soft tissue at the back of Damon’s neck, holding it between his teeth as he growled louder.  
Damon mewled and tried to steady himself with his hands as his body shook. This was going to be over pretty quickly at this rate. It had been a surprise to both of them to have Damon’s milk flowing so early on. The first time Stefan had drank a significant amount of it, he’d fucked Damon on the couch for an hour afterwards. Today, Damon had been unable to argue with the near obsession Stefan had with his body either.  
“Stefan…” He gasped and Stefan angled his hips to hit his prostate.  
Bingo.  
He moaned loudly as he climaxed and Stefan rammed him hard and fast, spilling in him. Damon’s legs turned to jelly and he relaxed into Stefan’s body. Stefan withdrew from him and lifted him, moving to the bed and laying him down, before standing back and looking down at him as though he was examining a prized jewel.  
Damon draped his arm across his face.  
“Am I specialty meat?” He chuckled and Stefan crawled onto the bed and on top of him, removing his arm from his face and kissing him softly.  
Damon kissed back but didn’t have the energy to encompass him as yet. Stefan pulled away from his mouth and looked at him again.  
Love. Passion.  
“Hmmmn.” Damon hummed in response.  
I feel so strong.  
Damon looked at him and raised an eyebrow.  
Like I could fold a car in half.  
Good, but not my car ok?  
Damon grinned and Stefan rubbed their noses together. He brought his fingertips up and traced Damon’s left nipple. Damon shivered and gooseflesh spread across his chest. Stefan traced circles over the skin and sighed happily. No more milk was coming but it was ok. Perhaps he shouldn’t have drunken quite so much of it. He hoped there’d be more for when Vida came home with Nisha in a few hours.  
Guilt  
He channelled and Damon looked at him.  
“What’s wrong?” He asked.  
“The milk’s for her.” He sighed and stroked his hand over Damon’s chest again in reverence. “It just tastes so good, I couldn’t help myself.”  
“Relax little blood machine.” Damon smiled and pulled him down to hold him.  
Stefan lay on him fully and tucked his face into Damon’s neck, inhaling the roses from the fount.  
“I’ll be able to make more for her too.”   
Stefan nodded and relaxed. They had sparse pockets of time together alone and they should enjoy this.   
After a few more rounds, Damon had struggled to match his libido until eventually he’d let him rest amongst the pile of bedding where he lay currently. He should let him recuperate. Stefan was still a little nervous about being penetrated but he didn’t want a repeat of their last heat together. He wanted it to be perfect. The concept of being able to have such a uniting experience between their bodies and souls was still something he was trying to reconcile after such a normal sex life with his wife.  
He shook his head at that thought. She hadn’t really been his wife. He knew that. He didn’t carry any feelings of love for her in his mind but he couldn’t erase her either. Damon didn’t ask about her and he was glad. He wasn’t sure how to explain how he felt about a girl that he’d been pushed into marrying before he was ready to. They’d both been so young and inexperienced in everything – even kissing. Sure, he had had many invitations to be intimate with girls his age, but with Giuseppe always watching him and judging everything he did – it hadn’t been worth the risk that his father wouldn’t approve.  
Giuseppe.   
He still wasn’t sure how to feel about him either. On one hand he felt such gratitude that he had been involved in finding Stefan’s half-ling soul in the middle of what could only be described as hell and taking him to limbo to get a second chance. How could he hate him with that knowledge? His life in limbo hadn’t been all roses either but he’d been able to live and grow and evolve when other spirits would simply have been damned and left to their own personal hell. A bastard Giuseppe was, yes, but still his father and in his own way he did love him.  
Damon exhaled loudly and turned his face towards him. Stefan looked over at him and smiled fondly.  
Damon was being the most facilitating he’d ever experienced. He didn’t push or ask questions. As long as he felt that Stefan loved him and wasn’t going to leave or change his mind, then he was happy for Stefan to lead. Hadn’t he said a long time ago and just recently, how he always let Stefan lead? There was a large part of him that believed that Damon thought Stefan was a better person than him – for all of his arguing that being a good person was more important to Stefan than they were as a couple, it was becoming more and more evident that Damon liked it that way. He almost needed to believe that Stefan’s way was the right one, as he found his own understanding of that concept lacking.  
Stefan stood up and knelt beside his peaceful face, reaching out to stroke his sweaty fringe away. Damon didn’t even react as he did so and Stefan chuckled again.  
“Thoroughly ruined huh?” He whispered. “Better get some sleep Romeo, coz in a few days it’ll be me you’re reducing to this mess.”  
He pulled a blanket over him and tucked him in as best he could, before kissing his forehead and drawing away. In a few days, he’d finally allow himself to open up and be taken. Damon had been so patient, but nature would have a say soon.  
He moved out of the room and closed the door behind him, looking for his laptop. He plugged it in and took a seat, enjoying the last of the baby-free moments before Vida would start throwing human food at the wall again. She was as stubborn as Damon still. Mind you, she was eating a little more, but it was slow.  
His laptop sprang to life and he opened his inbox, hoping for news from Anne and Michael. He hadn’t related the next part of their story to her yet and hoped as always that she could shed some light or thoughts on everything that had happened to them. Thank god for her training as a counsellor sometimes.  
An email sprang up and he opened it smiling. It was from Beth. He began to read, feeling his loins begin to heat as he did. She and Klaus had finally had sex. It wasn’t like Beth to give such detailed accounts of a personal nature. Of course. He shook his head. She’d been entering her heat when they’d last seen each other. In fact, she’d charged in to help get his soul back from grandma, risked her life to help get his body out of the source when she hadn’t known whether it would eat her alive too, all while her body was urging her to make a nest.  
He’d never really thanked her. That last day she’d been at the camp, he hadn’t been himself. He’d been so lost still. He should call her. He clicked further down the contents of the email, blushing and feeling his libido kick up again. Damn it Beth!  
He closed the lid and tried to breathe his erection down. He never thought he’d find himself being turned on by the description of a romantic interlude involving Klaus. He’d known that Klaus and Beth would eventually get together. Everyone had known really, but he hadn’t expected her to tell him. Perhaps it was because she felt so close to Stefan. They’d shared an experience that none of the others had.  
He squeezed himself through his jeans and groaned, looking towards the bedroom. Damon couldn’t help right now. He was practically comatose from sex.   
He stood up and moved to the bathroom, leaving the laptop blinking insistently as he locked himself inside and took care of his…situation.  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
“What’s the problem love?” Klaus appeared at her side as she struggled to get Toby to eat from the spoon she was floating in the air in front of him.  
Toby squealed and turned his face away and she exhaled and sat the spoon back in his bowl.  
“He still not eating?” Klaus asked and she nodded.  
“It’s his favourite. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”  
Klaus took a seat beside her and lifted Toby out of his chair and into his lap, checking his face for an expression of pain or discomfort. Toby began to gurn and looked up at him with wide eyes.  
Hungry?  
Klaus channelled and Toby gurned again in response.  
“He’s hungry, he must be. He hasn’t eaten anything since we got back from the wolf camp earlier. I’m worried Nick.”   
She pulled her cell out of her pocket and began to google why her little monster wouldn’t eat. Thank god for all of the mummy support forums out there. Without these she’d feel even more alone in this and inadequate. It was nice to know that she wasn’t the only one who felt like that. Even human women were just as confused and afraid of making mistakes with their babies.  
Klaus bounced Toby on his knee and Toby began to chatter at him and fuss.  
“Perhaps a nap.” Klaus said and stood up, holding Toby to his chest.  
Toby leaned his face against him and closed his eyes tiredly. Elizabeth continued to scroll through the information, unaware that Klaus had left and moved up stairs to her room - still her room. They had been getting nearer to the conversation of what they were going to do. The scent of her heat was strong now and she could see Klaus was becoming more affected by it. He was touching her and inhaling her whenever they were close, but they hadn’t talked properly yet. The trip home from the Salvatore pack had been tiring for them both and they’d just wanted to relax and not have to deal with real life just yet.  
After ten minutes, she heard Klaus’s footsteps moving in his own bedroom directly above her and she blinked in surprise, realising that they had both moved. She sat her cell on the table and yawned. Perhaps she could use a nap too and then tackle Toby afterwards. He’d eat eventually, his little wolf appetite would see to that.  
She went up to her room, smiling to see Toby dozing in his crib next to her bed. She cracked the bones in her neck as she stretched out and looked towards the ensuite. Perhaps a shower would help her feel a little better.  
She stripped and jumped in under the hot water and tried to soothe her taut muscles. They’d have a conversation today about the heat. They had to. It could come on her tomorrow and what would they do then? Klaus had offered to give her space and supply her with some recreational sex aids if she wanted to bear it alone. She wasn’t sure. She recalled having to lie in agony during the spell at the Salvatore house – aching and desperate to have a partner soothe her insides. It wasn’t an experience she ever wanted to endure again. She could see that Klaus wanted her, but he was holding back for her sake. She did want him. She remembered what a talented lover he had been all those years ago, but when she tried to visualise going through with it now, she couldn’t help but think of Jack.  
Her heart sank and she held her hand over her stomach. Whenever she thought of him it felt as though her stomach plummeted a hundred feet. Was it grief still? Had she actually grieved properly? What was a sufficient amount of time? Could there ever be a sufficient amount? Was some of the feeling guilt because she had lustful thoughts about Klaus?  
Klaus had a scent of his own and as he had become more physically responsive to her, she hadn’t failed to notice the musky scent of his body – so different from the smell of a mate, of Jack. There were no roses, but a musk that seemed to emanate from his skin. She’d been unable to ignore the movements his body made when he glided throughout the house, the depth of colour in his eyes when he sat daydreaming, thinking that she didn’t see him relax. A few times, he had fallen asleep in his armchair, his expression peaceful and unguarded, his lips full and an enticing shade of pink.  
She shivered as she stroked foam over her shoulder and across her breasts. Yes. She had fantasized what it would be like to sleep with him again, to have those lips on her. She closed her eyes and tilted her face up into the spray, sighing.  
Was it such a bad thing to crave? She hadn’t been on her own or single for most of her life. She’d been with Klaus a few years before Jack had come along and then it had been she and Jack against the world after that. She didn’t know how not to be part of a couple. Was that all this was? Was she simply desperate to recreate a relationship because she was afraid not to be in one? Would it matter who her partner was? Or was it because she really did feel ready to begin something with Klaus again?  
So many questions.  
She rinsed herself off and grabbed a towel, wrapping herself in it and moving through into the bedroom again. Toby was asleep sucking his thumb. She towel dried her hair and tied it up away from her face, before sitting down at her dressing table – or Klaus’s dressing table, she should say. Everything here belonged to Klaus. She should consider what that meant going forward.  
She shook her head at her melancholy thoughts and removed her underwear from the drawer next to her. She slipped the towel free from her body and put her panties on, surprised to smell herself the instant that she opened her legs to slip them on. She stilled, exploring with her fingers and drawing them back to see a clear substance on them. The hairs on the back of her neck rose and it felt as though the air was charged with electricity. The smell coming from her fingers was potent and oddly pleasant. She dried her hand with the towel, recalling the advice that she’d been given by the young wolf Nisha. Nisha had tried to describe some of the effects of the heat as experienced by female wolves, in hopes that it would give her some idea of what to expect, as there was so much she couldn’t recall about her heat during the spell. She’d been half mad with the fever during it and as a result most of her memory surrounded the aching and lust, rather than the other physicalities that Stefan seemed to so clearly recall.   
She’d wanted so badly to talk to Stefan about it, but he was a man and therefore, his experience with their ill-fated heat, may differ entirely from what may happen to her anyway. Karl and Monique had been waiting patiently for Monique’s to come so they could try and conceive again, despite the dangers that she and Stefan had faced in giving birth. Klaus had agreed to help them. Anne and Michael had just had their first post-spell heat and had emailed to say that they were both good. They had opted to use human contraceptives and it seemed to have worked for them. It was a relief to know that.   
She clipped her bra on and pulled on a pair of jeans as she thought about calling Anne for a description of what to expect. Anne would have no difficulties going into detail as she was the fact finder and record keeper of their group. Anne wrote down everything, every experience and documented it for them all. She wouldn’t be shy about such personal questions.  
She nodded to her reflection before remembering that she’d left her cell down stairs.  
“Shit.” She sighed and stood up, feeling a little light headed as she did, so she braced herself against the dressing table for a few seconds.  
That was odd. Toby began to cry in his crib and she righted herself, taking a second to ensure she felt normal again before she moved over to him. She looked down and cooed at him. Hopefully he would eat now. He reached up for her and she lifted him, kissing his head and holding him to her chest as she spoke gently to him. He buried his face in her chest.  
“You have to eat if you’re going to be a big boy darling. Ok? Will you eat your lunch for mummy?” She cooed and frowned when she saw that he’d dribbled on her.  
“Toby.” She exhaled. “This was fresh on.”  
She bounced him, wondering whether to bother changing into a new t-shirt. She’d never seen so many fluids come out of such a tiny being in her life. She was constantly covered in his excretions. He’d began to pass waste now that he was eating food. He took no blood at all at the moment. It wasn’t the nicest experience to have to begin to accommodate his hygiene needs now, but he was alive and it was healthy and normal.  
“To hell with it.” She decided not to bother changing again and moved out of the room, headed back downstairs for her cell.  
Klaus was nowhere to be seen. She moved back to the table and popped Toby back into his high chair and he began to wail and reach for her.  
“I’m right here.” She cooed and sat down, kissing his hands. “See?”  
Toby continued to wail, red faced and she lifted his food again.  
“Come on my big boy…” she began to speak as she moved the spoon towards him and he batted her hand away and screamed, kicking his feet.  
“What is wrong with you?” She tried not to shout at him, but he was being so challenging today.  
She slammed his bowl of food down and counted to ten in her head. Klaus appeared as if from nowhere and put a hand on her shoulder to calm her. She looked up at him feeling deflated and exhausted.  
“He woke up and I thought maybe he would eat now.” She explained and he studied her face to the point of making her feel as though she was a specimen under a microscope. “What?” She frowned and he blinked rapidly and looked to Toby.  
“What is that smell?” Klaus frowned and inhaled, looking over her body as he did and she blushed, thinking on her underwear situation.  
Could Klaus smell her strange new discharge? Who was she kidding, of course he could. His senses were ancient and pronounced. She blushed crimson and brought her knees together in embarrassment.  
“What?” He tilted his head as he took in her mortification.  
“I think it’s starting. I’m getting some…” she cleared her throat, feeling vulnerable. “I’m a little wet.”  
His expression dropped and he blushed too, licking his lips and blinking again. He was aroused, she could tell. He cleared his throat and looked away from her for a second.  
“Yes, we should discuss…” he began to mumble, when Toby squealed angrily and reached out for her again.  
“Stop that. No.” Elizabeth said clearly to him and he cried.  
She shook her head and moved to stand up when Klaus stopped her and knelt down so they were at eye level, his eyes moving around her body again as though he was assessing her.  
“What are you doing?” She asked but he didn’t answer. “Nick?”  
He leaned in towards her until their noses were almost touching and she felt her loins heat up in want. God she wanted him, she definitely did. Her cheeks burned and she felt a little short of breath, but still he didn’t kiss her. He lowered his face to her neck and leaned in to sniff there. She shivered and waited for him to kiss her there, her skin tingles in excitement at the possibility. He lingered there for a second before he placed one of his hands over her left breast. She leaned into him immediately, smelling the scent between her legs grow stronger.  
Desire. Lust.  
She channelled and he pulled back from her and took a step back. She raised her eyebrows. He swallowed as though his tongue was too big for his mouth.  
“Milk.” He croaked, averting his eyes. “You’ve got milk.”  
“What?” Her head spun at his unexpected response.  
Klaus cleared his throat and indicated to her top, now beginning to show damn patches around her breasts.  
“You’re lactating love.” He sounded a little clearer this time and she looked down absentmindedly.  
She touched her breasts through the top, noticing how erect her nipples were and she looked to him a little fearful.  
“Perhaps he’s hungry for something other than his usual.” He remarked and she looked to Toby, feeling dazed.  
Toby was reaching out to her again.  
“But I…I don’t know how to. Nick, I’m afraid.” She blurted, trying not to panic.  
He knelt down next to her again.  
“It’s what breasts are for. Your body knows what to do love.”  
“But I…” she swallowed and looked to Toby again.  
“You can do it. Let him guide you.” Klaus said gently, lifting Toby out of his chair and looked to her as he held him.  
Toby was looking towards her chest and squirming.  
“Why would he need this when he eats?” She frowned.  
“We should add it to the list of things we don’t understand about him.” Klaus nodded. “Do you want to try?”  
She gave a stiff nod.  
“I will give you some privacy.” Klaus said, holding Toby out towards her when her stomach lurched.  
“Please stay with me Nick.” She asked and he paused in surprise. “Help me.”  
“I don’t think my skills will lend you much help in this situation.” He gave a little side smile but she didn’t return it.  
“Please.” She whispered and he nodded but looked a little uncomfortable.  
She took a deep breath and undid the rear clasp of her bra, sliding it off. Klaus raised one eyebrow impressed at her ability to remove the damned thing without removing her t-shirt. She sat the bra on the table and looked to him nervously. She paused, her cheeks glowing again and he opened and closed his mouth silently a few times as she lifted her t-shirt on one side to expose one of her breasts.   
“It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.” She reminded him and he swallowed audibly.  
He tried to look everywhere but at her small pink nipple as she took Toby from him and cradled him to it, urging him to latch on. He failed utterly, staring engrossed in the display. Toby squirmed, frustrated and she lifted his head a little higher. He didn’t seem to be able to suck properly and began to cry and she looked to Klaus for aid.  
“I don’t understand why he’s not sucking.”  
Klaus shook his head a little and reached out, tilting Toby’s face a little and pulling his bottom lip down just a tad. He nodded at Elizabeth and she placed her nipple into his mouth, dragging his little lip the rest of the way down. Toby sealed his mouth around the nipple properly this time and closed his eyes as he sucked a large mouthful.  
She opened her mouth a little, blinking rapidly at the sensation it caused. Klaus studied her face.  
“What does it feel like?” He whispered and she blinked again.  
“I don’t know. Strange, but good.” She answered and watched Toby’s eyelashes flutter. “How is this possible?”  
“How was it possible for you to grow him?” Klaus added and she stroked Toby’s forehead gently.  
“I never missed not having some of the normal things.” She mumbled and Klaus raised an eyebrow. “Breast feeding and having that kind of bond with him, but maybe it would be nice.”  
“You deserve to have this.” Klaus said, smiling warmly and she looked at him.  
“It’s started.”  
“Yes.” He agreed.  
She looked down at Toby, suckling contentedly and sighed. They fell into silence while she considered her words carefully.  
“I want you during this heat.” She whispered, biting her lip afterwards and he inhaled deeply.  
“But?” He asked and she gulped.  
He sat back on his heels, waiting for her to continue and he nodded and looked up at the ceiling.  
“You don’t want to mate.” He said and she nodded, avoiding his eyes. “So my part in this, is to relieve you.”  
“It’s more than that. You know that.” She looked at him pleadingly and he kept his expression blank.   
“Well, that’s all well and good but what do I get out of this arrangement?” He said, hurt evident in his voice.  
“I want us to get to know each other again first Nick, please. How can I know that I’m really ready to be your mate if I haven’t given myself the chance to understand who I am again?” She explained, but he stood up and turned away.  
“Haven’t I done enough to show you I’d look after you?” He asked.  
“I don’t want you to look after me, that’s what you always did wrong before. I need you to be my equal. I need to know that I’m not…”  
“What?!” He spat, his face growing pink with emotion as he looked around at her.  
“That I’m not just letting you fill his place because I’m afraid to be alone.” She finished and he narrowed his eyes at her and brought his mouth into a straight line as he considered that.  
He didn’t know what to say or feel.  
“I love you. I always have.” She said sadly. “I want us to share this together, explore it and see how we feel afterwards.”  
He turned back towards her and crossed his arms. Toby burped and stopped sucking. She cradled him and his head rested back into her elbow. She smiled and stroked his face lovingly.  
Love. Devotion. Mother.  
She channelled to the sleeping infant, her heart swelling with the feeling and Klaus let out a small exhale and lay his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him silently.  
“Ok.”  
He may not have the same abilities as the others. He may not be the same as the others. He might not even be able to…perform like the others, but he was still a man and a wolf and he’d do whatever she needed during this process. They didn’t even know if he could mate with her, but he did want to, if she’d let him. He’d just have to bide his time.


	54. Chapter 54

Chapter 54 TH

Masturbating didn’t suffice when he knew his mate was lying in their makeshift nest in the next room. He did his best anyway and cleaned himself up, re-emerging from the bathroom. He’d read the rest of Beth’s email later.   
He looked around the lounge, feeling a little twitchy.   
Nest. He needed to make a proper one.  
He nodded to himself, gathering up all of Vida’s toys and tidying them away. It started off systematically – he just wanted to figure out what he should use for his nest. The last time he’d been drawn to make a nest, he’d resisted it so hard. Damon had made it instead. During the spell…he hadn’t had much of a nest either, just when they’d survived and Damon had been sick. Now was his chance to do this properly.  
He hadn’t realised how much of the nesting instinct revolved around tidying everything into certain places, clearing the space. He placed all of Vida’s toys into her box and looked around, driven by the need to have the area perfect. Every shirt laying over an item of furniture bothered him and he had to chuckle when he realised that his thoughts had turned to quandaries over whether the clothing was soft enough to be added to their blankets. How odd. They didn’t really need to be insulated under their bed clothes and yet, he wanted to.  
He gathered a few of Damon’s cashmere jumpers, holding them to his mouth and inhaling his scent as he did. One of Damon’s t-shirts was covered in his sweat as he’d been running earlier that day in preparation for their marathon in the sack. It was amusing to think of Damon worrying about not being fit enough to keep up with Stefan’s sexual demands. They’d never had a problem with that before but then again, since Damon had lactated – it was clear that Stefan could keep going longer. Was Damon trying to compete? Sounded like him.  
He spend half an hour sniffing everything in the lounge. He couldn’t figure out why he needed to, but he just went with it. Everything was orderly when he was done and he sat on the floor cross legged as he tried to relax. It was coming. He could feel his increase in temperature and had been scratching. The feeling of insects under his skin would start soon.  
The door knocked and he answered it. Nisha didn’t look good.  
“You ok?” He asked immediately and took Vida from her arms.  
Vida smiled happy and leaned her face into his chest.  
“Yeah.” Nisha said but she was blushing and looked nervous.  
“You sure? I hope she hasn’t been trouble.” He said, looking her over and she nodded absent mindedly.  
A subtle scent floated towards him and he tilted his head and looked to Nisha’s pulse in her throat. It was rapid and she was sweating.  
“You’re…”  
“Yes. Not as deep as you will be, but yeah.” She answered his thoughts.  
“You’re going into heat?” He asked in surprise.  
How had she not said she was due? How had no one else smelled that? Everyone in the camp had been able to smell Stefan yesterday, so he hadn’t left the lodge just in case. He didn’t want to repeat his mistake with poor Peter again.  
“It sprung on me.” She said dismissively.  
“Are you going to be alright?” He frowned.  
“Yeah. It won’t be as intense for me as what yours appears to be. The once a year heat is like yours for me but the little ones are manageable.”  
“Do you have..?” Stefan paused, unsure, “…a partner in mind?”  
She frowned before answering him and he held his breath, hoping she’d selected Nathan. He knew how much Nathan cared for her.  
“No. I’m not ready for that. This is my first heat since…” she trailed off, swallowing and he nodded.  
“If I can help…”  
She chuckled and leaned in towards him, sniffing.  
“I don’t think you’ll be in a position to help anyone but your mate Stefan. Go. Love each other. I’ll be fine.”  
“Will you be safe?” he asked as she moved to walk back to her lodge.  
“I can take care of myself.” She smiled and walked away hurriedly.  
He watched her go, concerned for her. So a female wolf had heats just as regularly as he did, but they weren’t as consuming as his were – only at the once a year heat. That was a surprise. Would the other available members of the pack not try and claim her then? He shook his head unsure and Vida looked up at him and began to chat baby talk.  
“Aunt Vida is a special lady huh?” he said and she grinned.  
He closed the door and sat her down on the floor. She looked around, probably searching for her toys and he moved into the bedroom. Damon was still comatose, now hanging half out of the bed as though the weight of his legs hanging off the side had pulled him that way. Stefan chuckled and entered.  
He sat down next to him and began to kiss the back of his head, breathing him in.  
Mate. Wake up.  
Damon stirred and made a hum of acknowledgement.  
It’s starting. Baby needs to sleep.  
Damon hummed again and opened his eyes. He rolled onto his back and Stefan caught the scent of roses as he moved. His veins appeared in response.  
“I’m starving.” Damon looked to Stefan’s neck. “Maybe I should just take so much you can’t move and I can have my wicked way – or more sleep.” He joked.  
Stefan huffed jovially.  
Damon sat up and groaned, touching his rear and Stefan bit his lip.  
“You’ve worn me away little blood machine.”  
Stefan blushed and Damon yawned, stretching.  
“It was good though wasn’t it?” Stefan asked, hoping that Damon had enjoyed it as much as he had.  
Damon smirked and motioned him forward for a kiss. They kissed softly, unhurried. Damon pulled back and moved into his throat, biting down to feed and holding Stefan’s back for support as he gulped. Stefan shivered and closed his eyes.  
“Show me you enjoyed it.” He whispered, tilting his head back so Damon could drink as deeply as he needed.  
Damon hummed and stroked his fingers across his shoulder blades.  
Show me.  
Stefan channelled and Damon held him a little tighter and began to channel back his version of their sex in his memory.  
Stefan watched in his mind as Damon tried to blink sweat out of his eyes but failed and tilted his head back. The missionary position seemed to be Stefan’s favourite for him and he had no complaints. Stefan was once again burning up the bed with his enthusiasm, licking up Damon’s throat as he moved and making him shudder. This was going to be an interesting heat if Stefan was going to take control like this. Would they end up fighting for dominance again?  
He grunted, opening his mouth wide as Stefan hit his prostate. He tensed his arms and legs as the shock went through his body.  
“Uhh!” He cried out, but Stefan kept going, not giving him a chance to breathe through it and it made his insides jolt all the more. “No, stop!”  
He yelled out and bucked his hips and Stefan slowed, kissing him as he struggled to relax again. It felt light lightning bolts were travelling up his spine and he made sounds he’d never uttered before. Stefan chuckled and stopped for a second as Damon stared at him in wonder.  
“You ok?” Stefan whispered.  
He nodded and Stefan gave him a very wet and messy kiss, before beginning to move again and lifting Damon’s legs higher around his waist, bending his own knees so he could get better purchase on the sheets. He was clearly on a mission.  
The sensation of Stefan brushing his prostate, built more quickly next time and he found himself struggling not to squirm as Stefan moved his whole body on the bed as he dove in deeper and faster than before, swallowing his moans with kisses and making his head spin. Damon arched upwards as the next climax hit him and he almost coughed at the severity of the movement.  
This time Stefan pulled back and let him recover.  
“I need a minute!” Damon exhaled and dropped his arms to his sides as the sweat poured from his body.  
Stefan hadn’t even touched his manhood yet and it didn’t look like he would have to at this rate. Stefan breathed heavily, rubbing up Damon’s thighs and kissing his chest sweetly as he waited for the green light again.   
How many more can I give you, huh?  
Stefan smirked into Damon’s skin while he channelled. Damon exhaled in response.  
That good huh?  
He channelled again but Damon had no energy to answer other than to gyrate every now and then as his body pulsed from his orgasm. He’d released his semen in the first round, but knew that wouldn’t stop his body trying to release more. His manhood bounced against his chest, full and large and he gripped it, squeezing.  
“You want a little attention down there?” Stefan whispered and dragged his mouth towards his groin and Damon held it with both hands.  
“No. I can’t take it.” He said and Stefan chuckled again.  
“You sure?”   
“Definitely.” He sighed and Stefan leaned up and kissed his mouth.  
“Ready?” Stefan asked and he nodded.  
Stefan lifted his legs at a much higher angle and began to slap his manhood in and out of Damon’s entrance. Damon’s moans immediately fell from his mouth in a higher cadence and Stefan grinned throughout. It only took mere minutes before he tensed again.  
“Oh god!” He cried out and almost kicked Stefan away with his legs in urgency at the overwhelming sensation and Stefan fell back onto his heels and chuckled, withdrawing from inside of him.  
“That’s number three.” Stefan breathed proudly. “Want another?”  
“Stefan, what…” he could barely speak he was so full of sensation.   
Stefan leaned over him and kissed his mouth softly, lovingly to let him breathe. Damon panted into his mouth and closed his eyes, letting his arms sag to the sides of his head.  
“How can you be so much better at this than before?” He panted and looked up at Stefan’s face. “Should I be worried you had more practise in the fake world?”  
Stefan grinned and scented the side of his face slowly, licking the sweat dripping there.  
“I was a doctor remember. I know exactly how to stimulate just the right places.” Stefan divulged confidently.  
“Christ you’re going to kill me!”  
Stefan chuckled.  
“Masturbation was used for stress relief and to relieve mania.” He explained, raising himself on his elbows and resting for a moment to look down at Damon’s face. “I had to learn how to stimulate the men too. It was actually quite effective for some conditions.”  
Damon looked at him in horror and Stefan chuckled again.  
“Different time.” Stefan added.  
They rested their foreheads together and breathed, as their bodies vibrated.  
“Are you afraid of me being on top?” Damon whispered eventually and Stefan pulled back to look at him.  
“I’m not afraid, just…I don’t know.” He admitted.  
“Is it just that you’ll be stuck underneath me? Because you can still be on top with me inside you.” Damon rubbed up his arms, trying to offer him the control.  
Stefan gave a small smile.  
“I’ll be desperate for you, I know that from last time.”  
“Last time was different.” Damon pointed out.  
“Yeah. I want this one to be special. Everyone else describes it as being wonderful – something they actually look forward to. I want that.”  
Damon gave a smile too.  
“I just…want to show you that I can please you too.” He admitted and Damon searched his face.  
“You don’t need to wear away my prostate to prove that Stefan.” He chuckled.   
“But it’s better now? You said I was better at this?” Stefan probed.  
“I didn’t mean better. More intense.”  
“Isn’t that better?”   
Damon sucked his bottom lip into his mouth as he thought on that.  
“You want me to give you as many orgasms as I can don’t you?” Stefan probed again.  
“Hey, you know me Stef – selfish to the end, but I want to see you cum too. You haven’t have you?”  
“A little once or twice. Don’t worry, I’m saving it up for the finale.” He grinned and leaned down to kiss Damon’s lips again.  
Damon kissed back, bringing his arms around Stefan’s back to hold him tenderly. Stefan entered him again but didn’t move.  
I like it when you cum with me little blood machine. Cum with me please.  
“I can’t keep going if I do that.” Stefan whispered as he kissed into Damon’s neck, biting playfully and rocking his hips slowly.  
Damon brought his legs around Stefan’s back and arched. He moaned into Stefan’s shoulder.  
“And I like seeing you unable to talk.” Stefan whispered into his ear and began a rhythm again.  
Damon gasped and squeezed him to him, his tender prostate in no need of much more stimulation as Stefan’s manhood tickled it. He began to let out guttural moans and random curses and Stefan sped up.  
“No more, no!” He cried out and climaxed in a torrent of bucking from his hips so severe that Stefan had to hold onto his body to stay inside.  
Stefan climaxed in excitement at the unexpected response and lay his face into Damon’s heaving chest, trying to catch his own breath. Damon’s breathing sounded so loud in his ears as he rested there, until he realised that his breathing was laboured. He raised his head and looked to Damon’s face a little concerned.  
Damon had tears running down the sides of his eyes and was trying not to weep. Stefan pulled out of him and leaned over, stroking his hair and cooing.  
“Did I hurt you?” He said concerned and Damon put his arm over his eyes and shook his head as he sniffed and calmed himself.   
Stefan sat back a little aghast.  
“Damon?”  
Worry  
Damon took a few minutes to breathe and collect himself before he wiped his eyes with his arm and removed it, keeping his eyes closed.  
“Are you ok?” Stefan asked sheepishly.  
Damon nodded. Stefan felt his stomach squeeze as he tried to figure out what was wrong.  
Fear.  
He channelled and Damon blinked his eyes open.  
“The sex is different now too.” Stefan whispered and Damon looked at him. “Another thing about me that’s not who I was before.”  
Damon blinked at him, channelling confusion.  
“You don’t like the way I touch you now do you?” Stefan guessed.  
Damon struggled to sit up, feeling lightheaded and thoroughly fucked – leaning on his elbows when he realised he didn’t have enough strength to sit right at this moment.  
“I do.” He argued.  
Stefan frowned and stroked Damon’s tear stained cheeks.  
“Then what is this?” He asked of Damon’s tears.  
“It’s hard not to feel…consumed by you now.” Damon said. “I don’t want to disappoint you when you need me.”  
Stefan chuckled, his spirits lifting and cupped Damon’s face with both hands.  
“You have nothing to worry about there, my black haired one. Nothing at all.”  
Damon gave a small smile and blushed.  
“You’ve never had a problem in that department. Remember you taught me.” Stefan raised an eyebrow and Damon chuckled. “I just have a little more anatomical knowledge than before and I wanna use it to show you how much you turn me on.”  
Stefan leaned in the rest of the way and captured his mouth, kissing him and pushing him to lay back down on his back.   
He liked having Damon on his back these days. It was so satisfying to see his face grimace in pleasure at the peak of climax. It was addictive. They’d kissed for a few minutes until he felt Damon’s body sagging into the mattress, his heartbeat slowing again. He was done.  
He had pulled back, seeing how sleepy he was and placed another small kiss on his lips before he’d began to scent Damon’s neck and throat. They hadn’t taken the time to scent each other’s whole bodies for a long time. Time was always too short with Vida now walking around and needing more attention.  
He’d taken his time, cherishing every raised bump of tissue, every taught muscle in Damon’s abdomen and before he’d known it, Damon had been in a deep sleep. Which was where he left him as he’d jumped into the shower.  
Now, he sighed contentedly and turned his switch off so Damon could feed and rest. Damon pushed him onto his back, never stopping his feeding as he did so and they lay together as Damon refuelled his strength.  
Vida chattered happily in the lounge, holding onto furniture as she made her way to her box of toys and tried to pull a large teddy bear out. Stefan turned his head and watched her, smiling at her efforts. She had the most adorable frown when she couldn’t figure a puzzle out and right now it was the puzzle of how to get a large bear out of a deep box without being tall enough to see inside. Strange how she knew it was in there.  
She fell onto her bottom a few times before she began to cry in frustration and looked over at them through the bedroom door. Damon exhaled and licked his neck, snuggling his nose there in thanks and Vida crawled on her hands and knees towards them, whining.  
“What’s up baby girl?” Damon wiped his mouth dry and smiled at her, covering his groin with the sheet and sitting up.  
She began to say her usual vowels and pointed to the lounge. Stefan sat up, kissing Damon’s naked shoulder and swung his legs around to open his arms out to her. She stood up clumsily and went to him. He lifted her up and sat her on his knee and she pointed to the lounge again.  
“Later, baby. You can play with Henry later.” Stefan cooed and looked to Damon. “Time for a deep sleep.”  
Damon nodded and scratched his chest.  
“Do you have enough?”  
“Yeah.” Damon nodded.  
“How do you know?” Stefan asked in honest curiosity and Damon shrugged.  
“Damned if I know.” He said and took Vida from him.  
She squirmed, still looking to the lounge.  
“This is going to be weird. She’s big now.” Damon frowned.  
“Trust me, she’ll want the milk. I do.” His eyes glinted as he looked to Damon’s chest and Damon swallowed and cleared his throat.  
“Hey Lady Salvatore, it’s dinner time.” Damon smiled at her and she looked at him, huffily.  
“And supper time and breakfast time, hopefully.” Stefan gazed at Damon’s chest.  
Damon cooed at her to lay back in his arms but she was fussy and wanted to sit up, kicking her legs and straightening her back.  
“Maybe she doesn’t want it. She knew before we did that there was milk last time.” Damon pointed out.  
Stefan leaned into his chest, above her head and licked over one of his nipples. Damon shivered and Vida stopped fussing. She looked at his chest.  
“See? Milk in there for you. Drink it up before dadda does.” Stefan cooed and she gurned and looked at Damon.  
He cradled her once more and she put her fingers up to his pec. He lifted her head a little under his elbow and she leaned forward and took his nipple into her mouth. She supported herself mostly this time and Damon made a small gasp as she drew a mouthful. Stefan watched hungrily. Damon’s lack of breasts made it a little trickier an angle but after a moment of Damon adjusting Vida’s body position she was drawing large gulp-fuls of milk and he relaxed.  
“I wish I could feed her like that.” Stefan said and Damon gave a small smile. “You seem happier with this now.”  
Damon opened his eyes and looked at him in query.  
“You know, with…breastfeeding.” Stefan added.  
“It’s for you too.” Damon said in reply and seemed thoughtful. “I guess it doesn’t freak me out because of that.”  
Stefan smiled warmly.  
“I’m glad.”  
Stefan busied himself, bringing in fresh blankets and changing the bed while Damon moved around, rocking Vida as she suckled. This was the quietest she’d been for a long time. He marvelled at that. Stefan was almost working himself into a frenzy as he worked, sweat beginning to collect on his skin and Damon had to concentrate on Vida to stop himself from grabbing him and licking him.  
He moved into the lounge where Stefan had set up Vida’s crib and tried to breathe in any air that wasn’t Stefan-scented. Vida fell asleep clinging to him and he rocked her gently, rubbing her back until she burped.  
Baby fed.  
He channelled and lay her down in her fresh crib bedding, stroking her forehead. She immediately rolled onto her side and began sucking her finger. He lay a pacifier down next to her and pulled a blanket over. Hopefully she’d sleep as long as she had last time they were in heat.  
Stefan made a low growling sound from the bedroom and Damon turned to look towards the doorway. His skin prickled and he walked towards it, looking in. Stefan was on the bed on his hands and knees, still clothed but pupils blown wide. Damon licked his lips and Stefan growled again, looking wild and dangerous.  
He stepped inside and Stefan’s scent rolled towards him, almost drowning him. He blinked lightheaded and grinned sexily. He was still dressed in a sheet around his waist only and Stefan could smell his body fluids on it.  
“Mate me!” Stefan growled, showing his veins and fangs and Damon smirked and closed the door behind him with his foot.


	55. Chapter 55

Stefan growled, his muscles tense as he tried not to spring at him. Vida had literally just fallen asleep and he didn’t want to take the chance that they’d awaken her. He shivered, feeling the heat underneath his skin bubbling to the surface, causing beads of sweat to start emanating. He watched Damon’s pupils darken as he smelled their perfume growing in intensity with each new release of his body sweat. Why was he just standing there?!  
“Damon.” He croaked, his heart beating faster in anticipation.  
Damon stared at him, low rumbling beginning in his throat and chest and Stefan felt his heart skip a beat. The air was charged with electricity and Stefan was almost afraid to move. He took a deep breath and blurred towards Damon’s body, crashing into him as Damon rushed towards him at the same time.  
They collided in a mass of wet kisses and grabbing at each other’s limbs until they fell over onto the floor. Damon pinned him beneath him, his fangs glinting in the light and he tilted his head back submissively, feeling the desire to let Damon feed again. Damon bit down and drank noisily, stroking Stefan’s sides and across his abdomen, while Stefan closed his eyes and allow the blood wave.  
Sweet like oranges…  
Damon channelled absent-mindedly at the taste of the blood and Stefan gave a small nod and tried to hold him there. Damon pulled his teeth out and gave a primitive roar. Stefan looked up at him, just watching the way his face changed when he was following his instincts like this. After a few seconds Damon looked down at him, still animal and with very little human thought. Stefan wanted that kind of abandon, that kind of freedom to just be in this moment.  
Give into it Stefan  
Damon channelled as he began to lick around Stefan’s neck and throat, his erection bobbing through the sheet against Stefan’s groin as he moved. Stefan nodded again and tried to relax, but his brain was full of thoughts and worries like always, despite his body’s insistence that he open his legs and allow breeding.  
Damon’s throat rumbled as Stefan felt a small amount of his fluid releasing from his entrance and held still. Damon pulled back to search his face, his eyes still vampire and assessing him. He opened his mouth to speak when Damon grabbed him and lifted him onto the bed. He gasped in surprise and Damon moved behind him, biting the scruff of his neck carefully so as not to hurt him.  
Stefan let out a moan of desire at the pressure of his teeth and Damon dragged him back wards into the middle of their nest as though he was a conquest. Stefan lay down on his back chuckling at the imagery of that and Damon pulled the blankets over to cocoon them from the world.  
“You’re like an animal again.” Stefan chuckled and Damon began to grab at his clothes to remove them.  
He seemed so focussed on his task of stripping him that he didn’t reply verbally when Stefan tried to speak to him.  
“Damon?” Stefan put his hand on Damon’s chest as his jeans were removed from his legs.  
Damon growled in warning and he removed his hand.  
Tell me like a wolf Stefan. Like my wolf.  
Damon resumed removing Stefan’s underwear and Stefan exhaled.  
I can’t remember how to be a wolf.  
Damon shook his head.  
I was human. Damon I…you need to help me.  
Damon didn’t reply but looked to him, pulling his legs forward. Stefan tensed as Damon tried to open them.  
No!  
Stefan channelled and kicked Damon in the chest, sending him crashing out of their little nest and onto the bedroom floor. Stefan shot up immediately in alarm and regret and moved the blankets so he could look out into the room. Damon was on the floor rubbing his head and looking dazed.  
Regret. Sorry. Mate, love…  
Damon blinked hard and looked to him, a slow smile spreading across his face. Stefan frowned in confusion, expecting anger from him and Damon began to chuckle. Stefan waited for him to offer an explanation.  
Like a wolf.  
Damon channelled and chuckled again. Stefan began to smile now too. He may not have realised it, but fear was a normal reaction to his inner wolf too. He’d acted out as his wolf had responded to having his sex made so vulnerable. He began to chuckle and offered Damon a hand out to help him up. Damon crawled onto his knees instead and moved to him, placing his chin on the mattress and looking up at him.  
Stefan ran his hand through Damon’s black curls and touched the bump on his head lightly.  
“How far along are you?” Damon asked and Stefan paused as he searched his body for tell-tale signs of how soon he’d be begging for Damon’s manhood.  
“Beginning.” He said and Damon gave a thoughtful nod.  
“Good.”  
“Good?”  
“Yeah. I need to build up to it after today’s marathon, little blood machine. I only have so much bravado.” He smirked and Stefan began to re-settle the nest of blankets again, feeling a little relieved.  
He was hot and starting to feel sticky but it would hopefully build like it had the first time under the spell. Although he and Nathan had had penetrative sex right away – more so for Nathan to drive a claim on him. They’d had hours of Stefan sweating and ‘suffering’ in the library before it had gotten to that desperate act. This time, he wouldn’t suffer because he was with his mate.  
Damon stood up, rubbing his head a little still and walked around to the other side of the bed. Stefan disappeared back inside of their nest, sorting it until he was satisfied. He lay down comfortable and breathed as he felt the heat under his skin increase. The nest sheltering him added to the temperature but he’d rather have it than not. There was still such a strange sense of needing protection from the outside world. After a few minutes he realised that Damon wasn’t in the room and he turned onto his side.  
Mate, where are you?  
A low rumbled growl was his response from the other room and he smiled. He wasn’t far. Good. He heard Damon’s footsteps return and some movement of furniture. Curiosity got the better of him and he stuck his head out of the nest.  
Damon had carried in Vida’s crib and was fussing, making it sheltered from the view of their bed. He seemed fastidious with his efforts, leaning down to check she was still asleep.  
No baby. She should be in the other room.  
Stefan channelled and Damon simply shook his head and re-arranged her blankets.  
Mine. Mine. No one touching my baby.  
He channelled and Stefan huffed. He didn’t agree that she should be in the room again. They would have to get used to her being separate eventually, still he could see there was no arguing with Damon’s instincts right now. Next time they’d work something else out.  
Once Damon was satisfied that she was safe, he closed the bedroom door and moved some furniture against it. Stefan watched amused, with a raised eyebrow. Damon turned back to him and blushed, shrugging.  
You smell too good. Not taking any chances.  
Damon explained and Stefan beckoned him lovingly. Damon moved to the bed and climbed inside, laying down on top of him gently, his eyes soft. Stefan opened one of his legs to the side so that they could slide their legs together and link. Damon balanced on one of his elbows and stroked his face.  
“I love you.” He whispered and Stefan sighed in relief that the wolf hadn’t taken over this moment in Damon’s brain.  
He smiled and Damon leaned down to kiss him. The kiss grew heated and Stefan felt Damon’s mind cloud again. He pulled on their connection to see if he could see what Damon was experiencing and sighed in delight when he felt Damon’s urge to simply touch him and scent him for a while. He knew he’d still feel a little resistant to being penetrated if they just dove in and he wanted to enjoy this, this time.  
Damon pulled back from his mouth and began his scenting, occasionally rocking his hips into Stefan’s. Stefan held him encouragingly and closed his eyes. Every shiver he released, activated more heat inside of his body and he flushed and began to pant at the temperature change. Perhaps this was how it was supposed to work? Damon’s licking sped things up until they both boiled?  
He hummed in enjoyment as Damon took his time, sliding his cold tongue over his skin and tasting him. They had sometimes used scenting to clean each other and to scent-mark after sex, but this was different. He’d never noticed the difference until now because he was calm and open to this. Damon was actually tasting him, every patch of his skin, every muscle as it rippled under his movements. This was worship, pure and simple and it turned him on outrageously.  
As Damon’s mouth drifted down onto Stefan’s abs, he couldn’t help but gyrate and hum in encouragement, running his hands through Damon’s hair. Damon’s fingers slid up his sides, tickling every rib and he felt some more fluid release from his entrance. Damon growled in the back of his throat as the scent floated around them, but didn’t charge to the destination he was most interested in. He made a few small bites around Stefan’s hips, his tongue more enthusiastic than before.  
I want your mouth, please… Damon…  
Stefan channelled desperately, feeling his own manhood hard and throbbing. Damon kissed down to it and took it into his mouth. The contrast between the heat in his body and erection and the coldness of Damon’s mouth and tongue, made him yelp and arch. Was Damon’s mouth always this cold and he hadn’t realised?  
“Oh god!” He panted and his whole body seemed to release sweat, rolling down to the sheet underneath him.  
It’s hot, it’s hot!  
He struggled and Damon released him from his mouth and crawled back up his body, pressing their chests together to cool him down. It was torture at first but then Damon’s temperature began to make his more bearable.  
He whined at the back of his throat, surprising himself and Damon lay his face into Stefan’s neck – Damon’s cheek cooling even that area and he felt himself become sleepy and comfortable.  
Sleep mate. Just beginning. Safe.  
Damon channelled and Stefan frowned a little in protest that they should be mating and not sleeping. Yet as Damon’s breath became even and relaxing against his heart, his eyes closed and he found himself lulled into it. He relaxed his body, despite the vibrating heat and fell asleep.  
When he awoke, he thought that the room must be on fire it was so hot! He opened his eyes and felt how dry and uncomfortable they were. He opened his mouth to groan, but his mouth was so dry that he had no saliva to speak, other than to make a groan of distress, closing his eyes once more. A few seconds later he felt a cup being pressed to his lips and he opened them in surprise. Cold water filled his mouth and he gulped gratefully. Once the glass was empty it was removed and replaced by Damon’s lips, kissing his gently. He brought his arms up around him and opened his mouth to the kiss. It was gentle and loving, making his skin tingle with every stroke of Damon’s fingers on his sides.  
Damon pulled his mouth away and rubbed their noses together. The tell-tale sensation of contraction was beginning in Stefan’s abdomen and he grunted and flexed his hips in discomfort. His body was preparing to be filled.  
Damon nuzzled under his chin and lay his face on his chest in a submissive gesture. Stefan patted his back and ran his fingers through Damon’s hair. Damon made a small whine in his throat, which was muffled by Stefan’s skin.  
Need. Want you Stefan.  
He channelled and Stefan gave a small nod.  
Can I?  
Stefan pulled on Damon’s hair to raise his head and Damon looked at him with wide innocent eyes. This was going to feel so strange and slightly nerving but he’d done it a million times in his real life and there was no one he trusted more than his mate. He gave a nod, swallowing in anxiety and Damon’s eyes darkened, the veins appearing.  
Don’t…be gentle.  
He channelled nervously and Damon kissed him and stroked his face reassuringly.  
Always.  
Damon smiled and kissed his way down Stefan’s body slowly. Stefan closed his eyes and relaxed. Perhaps if he did, the cramps wouldn’t start. Damon gave his erection some brief attention before opening Stefan’s legs wide with care, checking his face for indications on whether he was going to get kicked out of bed again and Stefan held still, keeping his eyes closed.  
He could sense some of Damon’s hurt and reservations through their connection on account of his fear, but he couldn’t help it. He tried to breathe calmly, thinking of how he enjoyed Damon’s body, when Damon began to prepare his entrance. He gasped and opened his eyes, surprised he’d forgotten how good the action felt. Damon busied himself, gently and thoroughly – inserting his tongue and lapping at the fluid as Stefan’s body went into overdrive.  
Stefan lay back again and closed his eyes, smiling and panting at the feeling of Damon’s tongue loving him there. He’d forgotten. He moaned in encouragement and Damon’s increased his efforts, speeding up and licking deeper. Stefan gyrated against Damon’s face and grabbed at the sheets.  
Suddenly the licking stopped and Damon was pulling him up towards him by his hands, his face flushed and carnal. He turned him around and Stefan’s instinct to present his rear kicked in. He bent over onto his hands and knees and spread his legs. Damon returned to his entrance with more vigour. This angle was better and he moaned louder and reached around to pump his member. Damon was on a mission and he didn’t stop until Stefan had climaxed into his own hand.  
Stefan remained panting as the blood rushed to his head and Damon scented around his thighs and over his gluts. He leaned up, over Stefan’s back and licked his spine.  
“The switch. Turn it off.” He whispered, sounding strained and Stefan omitted a sound of confusion. “Your fertility switch.” He prompted to be clear.  
Stefan looked around at him and blinked as though he’d forgotten about that completely and Damon chewed his lip.  
“Stefan, you remember how to, don’t you?”  
“Yeah.” Stefan gave an unsure smile and cleared his throat.  
Damon gave a nod for him to initiate it and Stefan hesitated for a second.  
“Have you done it?”  
“Yeah.” Stefan nodded and looked away from him as Damon studied him.  
Uncertainty. Don’t know what you’re feeling Stefan.  
Stefan looked back at him again.  
“Did you mean it? What you said about having more?” He asked and Damon’s eyes turned gold.  
He sucked in a breath at such a response and felt a cramp seize him. He grunted and Damon growled in lust.  
Yes.  
Just as quickly as he’d lost control to his base urges though, Damon gave himself a shake and groaned, blinking hard.  
“But not yet Stefan. Gotta figure stuff out. Plenty of time.” He seemed to be fighting to get his words out and Stefan looked down to see how swollen Damon’s manhood was.  
Damon climbed further over him, covering his back until his lips were at Stefan’s ear and he whispered while rocking his hips.  
“You and me. Just us. Just me inside you, nothing else.”  
Stefan felt his entrance pulse with yearning and he gave into his next cramp, leaving himself breathless as he held his stomach. Damon nuzzled the back of his ear and pressed his erection against his entrance, sliding it over it slowly. Stefan shivered, feeling his fluid release again and he hung his head.  
Let me. Let me now?  
Damon whined again and Stefan let out a shuddering breath. It was now or never.  
Yes.  
Damon lined himself up and eased inside slowly. Stefan grabbed the sheets under him and tried not to focus on how strange it felt to have something going in there. He closed his eyes and Damon paused, kissing his spine and circling his hips. It had been a long time since Damon had been inside of him and he could tell this would be quick, judging by the near inebriation he could feel flowing from Damon through their connection.  
“Slow.” Stefan whispered and Damon whined, grabbing the sheets next to his hands and tightening them until his knuckles were white.  
Stefan gyrated a little and Damon pushed further in. God he’d forgotten how large Damon was. Still, his insides were well oiled and ready and he felt his brain beginning to cloud over with thoughts of comfort, safety and love. He dropped his mouth open and gave a small satisfied moan as Damon slipped the rest of the way in. They both sighed, stilling all of their movements as they adjusted.   
It wasn’t so bad. Why had he been so reluctant? His body was vibrating with satisfaction. They fit together.  
“Ok?” Damon whispered and he nodded, feeling overwhelmed but ok.  
Damon moved backwards to withdraw and thrust and Stefan grunted and tightened his hands on the sheets, feeling unsure. Damon paused, sensing his emotion and lowered his mouth to gently kiss his back again. Stefan panted a little, feeling the urge to squeeze Damon out of his body – probably a normal response he supposed. He remembered actually using his body like a human recently and it seemed weird not to push out.  
Damon listened to all of the whirring thoughts in his head and lay his face into Stefan’s back, making no further movements.  
We can stay like this for a while.  
He suggested and Stefan thought for a moment before nodding.   
Damon gently tilted them so they could lie on their sides and pushed himself back inside, holding around Stefan’s stomach to keep himself seated within him. Stefan seemed tense at first, but after a few small bites to the back of his neck and some scenting, his resistance began to fade.  
I’m sorry this is so hard.  
Stefan channelled. Damon snorted in amusement over his wording as he continued to scent and reached around for Stefan’s erection playfully. Stefan gyrated at the touch.  
“Mmmmn.” Damon agreed sarcastically.  
I want to feel normal again.  
You were never normal Stefan.  
I want to feel like I know myself again.  
Damon tightened his hold across his stomach and kissed the back of his neck, rubbing his cheek there to cover him in his smell and Stefan closed his eyes and leaned back into him.  
I’m in you and the world isn’t ending.  
Damon pointed out.  
No one can take you from me here and now.  
Stefan just listened, feeling some small cramps sneak up on him, making his heart palpitate. His body was fighting the urge to move. He gyrated backwards, moving Damon inside of him and sighed at how good it felt. Damon placed his hands on his hips and bit into the scruff of his neck in encouragement and Stefan began to move again, gyrating with more depth and vigour than before.  
Who said he had to just lie and take it? He could still take what he needed and pleasure Damon too.   
He put more effort into his movements and smiled when he heard Damon’s moans of appreciation. He pulled his hips away sharply and Damon grunted in surprise as he turned over and climbed on top of him.  
Damon reached up and held his hips again as Stefan calculated his next move. His first response was to opened Damon’s legs and have him until he cried again, but they couldn’t mate that way.  
“No rules Stefan.” Damon whispered, hearing his internal monologue and Stefan quickly opened his legs and thrust himself inside.  
Damon arched and gasped, grabbing a hold of Stefan’s shoulders. Stefan grinned and fucked him with sharp thrusts, making the bed hit the wall repeatedly. Damon held onto him for dear life and relaxed his legs, letting them fall open to the sides of the bed.  
“Mate…mate…” Stefan closed his eyes and whispered as he thrust and Damon moaned in between gasps.  
I’m going to cum, Stefan…  
Damon arched and climaxed and Stefan swooped down and bit into his throat, growling and claiming him. Damon’s eyes rolled back into his head and he covered them both in his semen. Stefan drank only a little and pulled back to watch Damon’s expression. He reached between their bodies, surprised at how much semen Damon had ejaculated. He ran his fingers across Damon’s taught stomach, eliciting a full body shudder from Damon.  
Mine. This is mine.  
He thought to himself as he popped his fingers into his mouth to taste it. As soon as the fluid reached his tongue his abdomen seized with a huge cramp and he buckled over and panted. He lay his face against Damon’s chest. Damon immediately wrapped his arms and legs around him and cooed, kissing his head.  
Stefan rode out the cramp and then sat back carefully, looking to Damon a little dazed.  
“Your rules little blood machine.” Damon reminded.  
“I’m still a man.” Stefan whispered and Damon frowned in sympathy for him.  
“Am I a woman?” Damon asked him?  
Stefan frowned now.  
“Am I?” He probed and Stefan shook his head. “You’ve had me left right and sideways and I’m no less of a man am I?”  
Stefan thought this through as he spoke and closed his eyes, sighing.  
“Sorry. Hetero mind set.” He whispered and Damon flipped them over.  
Not thinking is something you are terrible at Stefan. You’re incapable of just being in the moment. Trust me.  
Stefan nodded.  
Close your eyes. If you have to think, just focus on what I am doing.  
Stefan closed his eyes. Damon started by gently stroking over his skin and muscles attentively. Stefan smiled and relaxed like a cat being petted. Small kisses were placed over his shoulders and arms, the drag of Damon’s hair tickling him as he moved around. Gentle lovemaking would be nicer in a heat, not the desperate need to fuck and breed. If only it could stay like this as the heat increased.  
His body began to sweat and vibrate, opening up his insides again in preparation, when Damon returned to his mouth. He kissed him passionately until all Stefan could think about was the touch of his tongue in his mouth and the way their hearts were racing. It was the kiss of the century and his head began to spin so much that he didn’t even feel Damon move until he pushed inside of him in one movement.  
He gasped into Damon’s mouth, but Damon didn’t stop kissing, instead holding him with more care and kissing even more passionately as he rocked into him. There was no time to think or speak at all, everything was too intense, too distracting that all he could do was wrap his arms around Damon’s muscular back as they joined and moved against each other.  
Gradually he became aware of the milking sensation. He’d forgotten about that. He grunted in surprise and Damon’s breathing rate shot up in expectation. He sped up his thrusts, angling to brush the prostate and Stefan howled in pleasure.  
Mine, mine, mine…  
Damon was chanting in his head and Stefan cried out again as the muscles milking, grabbed Damon’s manhood and pulled it further inside of him, impossibly further in. Damon cried out and froze, emptying his seed into him.  
“Damon…” He began to whisper when he was hit by a powerful orgasm that had him unable to utter a sound.  
He threw his head back against the headboard, bumping it hard and Damon collapsed on him, rolling his head into the crook of Stefan’s neck limply.  
“I forgot about…” he whispered again when he felt the milking continue and they both gasped together, almost howling like animals.  
The milking continued for another few minutes, leaving them utter spent and boneless. Damon fell asleep with his face and mouth pressed against his neck and Stefan wept silently and held him there, feeling so overcome with love that he almost couldn’t stand it. He’d forgotten so much about this experience, about how their bodies were made to join like this. Sex with him being inside Damon was out of this world but it was only half of the world. This, was…There weren’t any words. He’d denied himself this. He never would again.  
Across the camp, Nisha sighed in relief as she heard them climax. Thankfully only another wolf in heat had the hearing to be able to so clearly. The rest of the pack would hear some but not all. Perhaps it was the longing to be in their position that did it for her. She groaned and rocked herself in her sheets, sweaty and miserable but it was ok. She could get through this. She had no choice. Her mate was dead.  
She looked across at her side table to the photograph of him. He smiled at her as though he understood. Like somehow the photo was some kind of porthole to the afterlife. She missed his gentle smile. He’d been a good man, a great wolf, a great husband.  
She sniffed, refusing tears. She’d shed enough to drown in and it was time to live again. He’d want that for her. She just wasn’t sure where to begin.   
She turned over and sniffed the air. All of her senses were more acute in this phase. She caught the scent of a potential mate and sighed, a small smile spreading across her face. Nathan. Of course it was. He was another good man. Perhaps someday, she’d be ready to let him in, but not yet. She climbed out of her bed and peeked through the small window. Nathan was sitting on her porch. Of course he was. He was protecting her. Not that she needed that from him – he’d spent too much time around the mates lately and was forgetting that a normal heat didn’t incur the same behaviours to claim during small heats. Wolves were just people, aside from the once a year heat – now that was when she’d have to make sure she could choose someone, fight them off or secure herself. It was the one time a year that wolves acted like wolves with little human thought.  
Still, her heart swelled that he cared for her that much. She climbed back into bed and resumed her rocking, thinking of Nathan’s body when they’d taken the swim in the lake that day.  
Nathan smirked to himself as he looked towards Stefan and Damon’s lodge. They were going to be fine, he could tell. No sounds of smashing and screaming this time. He sat his beer down next to him and stretched his neck, cracking it. He’d stay here all night to make sure that Nisha was undisturbed. He’d been disappointed that nothing had happened between them yet, but he couldn’t expect it to given the circumstances.   
He exhaled and thought on staying here in this pack. They were good people. The longer he had spent away from Mystic Falls the more he realised there was nothing there for him. His family was spread out. He knew them now. He wasn’t alone anymore. He didn’t feel the same desperation or urgency to belong. He could just relax and make friends. Friends became family. He didn’t need to hold onto Stefan and Damon for that anymore. He didn’t need to hold onto Stefan anymore when there were others that he could love and could love him back in the way he longed for.  
He raised his beer in silent solute to the stars above him and took a swig.


	56. Chapter 56

Chapter 56 TH

This heat felt more natural than the others. Hell, it was the most normal considering the first one they had had no human thoughts and had only gotten to mating at the end and the second one had been a total disaster thanks to fear and grandma’s interventions. Now they were safe and together, it made all the difference.

Stefan cried out, unable to take anymore sensation right now and Damon paused, holding himself above him and breathing.

Stop for a while.

Stefan begged and Damon chuckled.

Got ya.

Damon smirked, flexing his hips and making Stefan jolt and grab at his forearms.

“Not a competition.” Stefan exhaled exhausted.

Damon had been proving he could turn him to jelly, just as much as Stefan’s new skills could. Stefan’s body throbbed from the ministrations.

It’s only fair little blood machine.

“I don’t get stuck inside of you.” Stefan pointed out and Damon relaxed, laying on top of him and curling his face into Stefan’s neck.

Sorry.

Damon channelled and kissed his throat. Stefan had no energy to hold him back at all, but smiled.

They were both glad that their hind brains hadn’t overshadowed this experience together, but Stefan secretly wondered why. Heat sex was supposed to be unbelievable and different from the rest of the time – not that the sex wasn’t unbelievable, but it wasn’t the event that he’d expected. It reduced his fear of the unknown though and that was good.  
Damon pulled out of him gently and lay beside him. He turned onto his side and faced him, looking at Damon’s peaceful expression. Damon closed his eyes and smirked at him.

Still human brains.

Stefan commented and Damon hummed in agreement.

So different from last time.

Damon nodded sleepily.

There was just one exception to that. They were both fatigued this time. Yes, they’d slept after rounds before, but they were spending quite a lot of this snuggled up sleeping. It was intimate and wonderful too but just unusual. Perhaps this was the way their heat should have always been at the beginning. Perhaps it was a time to bond and cleanse each other before fucking each other senseless? They’d only ever experienced the end of the first heat where everything was done desperately to conceive and then last time it was to resolve Damon’s mania. Neither had been the real normal process.

Was his racing mind just a product of his usual need to plan and know what was coming? His need for control.

“Yes.” Damon answered, hearing his thoughts.

Stefan chuckled and held him around his waist, kissing into his neck and inhaling the roses. Damon nuzzled his cheek as he did so.

Are you hungry?

No. I’m fine.

Stefan channelled in response. Damon opened his eyes. Stefan traced around his cheekbones with his fingers, staring at the most tropical of blues in his eyes.

Do you still want me as much as you normally do in heat?

Damon blinked and slung his arm around him, pulling their bodies closer together.

Of course I do.

You normally tear at me, you’re more like an animal.

Oh, I can give you animal if you want little blood machine.

Damon growled in his throat and rolled them until he was on top, baring his fangs and Stefan stared up at him, his loins heating. He smiled but his eyes didn’t reflect the emotion and Damon hovered, searching his face.

“What’s wrong?” Damon asked.

It just…feels like you don’t want me the same way this time.

Damon frowned.

The other times, you could barely let me go long enough for me to breathe and this time…

Damon blinked at him, his eyes returning to normal.

We’re…still getting to know each other again Stefan.

Is that the difference?

Damon pushed himself backwards and sat straddling Stefan’s hips as he exhaled and tried to think.

“A heat is supposed to make us more, primal. But we’re talking Damon.” Stefan pointed out.

“I don’t want it like that.” Damon sighed.

“Like what?”

“Like I’m some meat head who can’t think about anything else but pounding into you.”

Stefan raised himself onto his elbows to listen more attentively.

“That’s…we could do that anytime.” Damon continued. “I want this to be about us, our soul, not just wolf crap.”

“Souls.” Stefan mumbled, highlighting the plural and Damon blinked as though he’d completely forgotten that new element of their status. 

Stefan wasn’t sharing his soul anymore. They were separate again. Two souls bound together by the bond but two souls none the less. Damon winced at that. They hadn’t talked about how they felt about it yet.

Stefan sat up fully and ran his fingers through Damon’s hair, kissing his cheek and jaw.

“Maybe that’s it then.” He postulated and Damon kept silent, tilting his face into Stefan’s kisses. “We shared a soul before, maybe that’s what made it so different.”

Longing.

Damon channelled and Stefan cupped his face and searched his eyes.

“We’re stronger now.” Stefan reminded and Damon gave a small nod. “This is a good thing.”

Pain.

Damon channelled and huffed silently.

I liked having you being part of me. You were more mine.

I’m still yours. I’ll always be yours.

Stefan intertwined their fingers and rubbed their noses together.

“This way, I’m safe. I won’t be lost if something happens.” He whispered and Damon rubbed their noses again, nodding with more agreement this time.

Love.

Love.

So that was it? The fact that they didn’t share a soul anymore meant that heats were going to be less animal than before? At least it was an answer and it wasn’t because Damon didn’t want him like he used to. It was hard to reconcile that Stefan was never going to be the same person he was before his human life as Dr Salvatore. There was no reversing living a lifetime as someone else. It was just something that they both had to learn to get used to. In truth it had worried Stefan that Damon may not like some of the new parts of him, his mind or the way he thought about things.

Stefan’s stomach rumbled and Damon smirked and began to chuckle.

Liar. You are hungry.

Stefan chuckled and rubbed his stomach in surprise. He truly hadn’t felt hungry. Perhaps the release of some of the stress of worrying was now allowing it.   
Damon lay down on his back and Stefan climbed on top of him. Damon tilted his head to beckon him towards his neck, but Stefan licked the skin, not biting.

Gotta find the right place.

Stefan channelled and Damon relaxed and closed his eyes.

Damon exhaled, smiling to himself when Stefan paused. He opened his eyes and was rewarded with a flick of hot tongue over his nipple. He inhaled and opened his mouth. His nipples were so sensitive. Stefan began to lap at them and Damon shuddered, feeling Stefan’s real hunger. Stefan seemed to feel a real lure to the milk for some reason, but he didn’t mind.

Stefan latched on and sucked, stealing milk as Damon tilted his head back and sighed. It was different from feeding Vida – she was a baby. His baby, but Stefan touching him like this felt entirely erotic. He didn’t understand why but he was consumed by it as his body began to writhe.

A few minutes of sucking and of Stefan stroking his body to encourage more milk, left him panting and sweating much like Stefan had been earlier.

“Stefan, god…I need to…” he moaned, flexing his hips and Stefan finally licked his last helping from his nipple and climbed on top of him, sliding down onto his erection slowly.  
He reached up and held Stefan’s hips, guiding his movements and Stefan began to ride him – his expression drunk and happy as he did so. He seemed a bit more confident about having Damon inside of him this time - a little more like the old Stefan.

Love you, love you…

Damon channelled as he flexed up into Stefan’s movements. Stefan reached for his hand and slipped Damon’s thumb into his mouth, sucking it and biting lightly.   
Damon watched mesmerized at the change and confidence in his mate and couldn’t help the flare of primal instinct that invaded his brain. Stefan was his. Stefan had his seed and milk inside of him. Stefan was his – his to feed and care for, his to breed and love, his to touch and pleasure.

He held Stefan’s hips tight and pounded upwards until Stefan had to lean forward and brace his hands on either side of the headboard. The force of their lovemaking broke piece of the wooden wall of in flakes, but they scarcely noticed as the milking began again.

This time, Stefan was ready for the milking and he sank as deep onto Damon as he could as Damon was pulled impossibly inside. The sharp sensation that caused both of them had them howling like wolves loudly. Damon lost control of his body completely and screamed out. For a moment Stefan feared that he was in pain and he brought their faces together soothingly. Damon cried out another few times and whimpered, sagging.

Stefan felt overcome with a fierce sense of protection and he brought Damon’s head into his neck, cooing at him as Damon’s seed was drawn out. Damon spasmed a few times, holding onto him as Stefan licked his face and whispered comforting words.

It’s ok mate, my love. I’m here, I’m here…

Stefan channelled and Damon surrendered into the mattress and closed his eyes. He looked drained but happy. Stefan kissed his mouth softly, licking around his jaw and neck and placing small kisses of reassurance. Right now he had the strangest feeling that he was in charge – he felt strong and virile and…fertile. 

He patted over his abdomen, now sweaty from their lovemaking. Yes, he felt as though he could rule the universe right now. He felt like the alpha. In truth neither of them were alpha, beta or omega in this relationship. Not really. This was something the wolves didn’t understand. With both being the same gender – there was no easy distinction. Saying that, he’d met plenty of females who would be the alpha in a relationship, so it didn’t really mean much. He and Damon straddled all lines because they were people – deep, flawed and desperately emotional and that always meant murky waters for classification.

Right now though, all he felt was the need to care for his mate – his sleepy, exhausted mate who was strong and fertile too. Damon had given him his seed again – filled him up and he’d also fed him the glorious milk. He was father and mother – he was feeder and provider of life. It was too complex an emotion for even him to get his mind around.  
He began to scent Damon’s body, leaning up to kiss his lips every time Damon murmured or spoke in his sleep. Leftover traces of milk were a bonus and Stefan cleaned him thoroughly before his body released his manhood. He slipped off of him, immediately feeling grieved at the absence of Damon’s flesh within him.

He lay beside him and curled his body into his, feeling the heat increase under his skin again. He closed his eyes. Damon rolled over to face him and sighed. Stefan smiled, feeling the safest he’d ever felt in his life and drifted peacefully. He awoke to the sensation of weight on his back.

He opened his eyes and sighed. Damon was lying with his head on Stefan’s bottom. He hummed and flexed his gluts. Damon traced his fingers over the firm muscle and began to massage it in reverence. Stefan chuckled.

Damon kissed over his gluts tenderly – not teasing his entrance at all, merely just enjoying and worshipping this part of his body. Stefan couldn’t help but shiver and chuckle at how ticklish it felt. 

“This bottom is going to take a beating Stefan.” Damon whispered, kissing his gluts again.

“Is that a promise?”

“Oh yeah.” Damon smirked. “Apologies in advance.”

Stefan flexed his gluts again and Damon bit his teeth in gently, drinking from the blood filled muscle.   
Stefan gyrated, enjoying the hint of pain that the bite caused and clenched his fists in the sheets. Damon only drank a little, before licking over the bite and then climbing between his legs and opening them. Stefan let his legs fall to the sides easily, his body flushing with excitement and Damon proceeded to lick him so thoroughly inside and out, that he felt as though he had no seed left inside of him to spread.

He passed out, crying so loudly his ears wrung. Every time he opened his eyes from his slumber after that, Damon’s mouth was there and ready - his cold tongue cleansing him and calming him. Attentive. It was utter bliss. Every need he could possibly have had, was met before he could even formulate it. They joined again, their lovemaking more animalistic this time as they worked their bodies together feverishly to climax. Neither of them resumed to take over, they both simply…fit.

The time of the peak fertility must be near as Damon had begun to lavish his stomach with attention – sniffing and licking over it and growling in desire. 

He whined in his throat as they finished a round. It felt intense – almost too intense. He buried his face in Damon’s throat and after his body released him, Damon raised himself up to remove himself from his body. The void inside of him again left him bereft and he groaned in dismay. The aching of being empty was getting worse each time and he began to feel like he might beg to have Damon stay inside of him always.

Damon immediately slipped back inside of him and cooed, rubbing their noses together. Perfect. Time didn’t seem to matter right now at all. They noticed only each other, finally beginning to understand just what the wolves had been describing – how wonderful the connection between them was right now, when the strangest things began to happen.

They both began to breathe together – each inhale and exhale happening at the same instant. At first they chuckled, believing it to be a coincidence and a result of their physical efforts, but the recurrence of their simultaneous movements continued as though they were one body. Their hands reached out at the same time to link their fingers together like mirror images. 

They looked to each other, a little afraid but too curious to stop anything else happening. They kissed together, their hearts beating as one.

What’s happening?

Stefan channelled as they kissed, their tongues dancing.

Love.

Damon responded.

Damon, I…

Just love me Stefan.

Stefan closed his eyes and relaxed utterly. Allowing their strange mirroring to continue. Sex stopped being something they had to think about and became more of the movements of a well-oiled machine and their limbs were merely the parts of the engine.

Stefan tilted his head back and Damon’s mouth followed into the croak of his neck. Damon rocked into him and his body arched up to meet him at each thrust. Their hands found each other, fingers linking as though all of their movements were a dance that they’d been practising for years.

They cried together, shivering. Damon milked Stefan’s manhood as Stefan’s body milked his. The pleasure was almost enough to make them both hallucinate.

Time passed unbeknownst to them until they slept once more, curled together. Who knew how long it lasted until they began to realise their own body movements again. Stefan opened his eyes and saw that Damon had fallen asleep next to him, detached from him some time through their slumber. He wrapped an arm around him and pulled him closer for a soft kiss. 

Damon made a small sound of acknowledgement and kissed back automatically. How long had it been? He sighed happily, feeling his body full of endorphins and Damon’s seed. Thank god for the fertility switch because he had no idea how contraception would have worked given the fact that they had become completely unaware of anything but each other.

Vida.

He raised himself up onto his elbows listening for her breath. She was fast asleep still. Maybe it hadn’t been as long a slumber as he’d thought. He carefully moved around Damon’s sleeping form and left the nest, approaching her crib. She was sprawled across her crib, dreaming deeply and he stroked a curl away from her face.

She was fine. He moved back into the nest as Damon stirred and his heart rate picked up. He spooned in behind him this time and scented the back of Damon’s neck. Damon reached around for his arm and pulled it around his stomach.

Thought you’d gone.

Checking baby. She’s sleeping.

Damon nodded in response and hummed as Stefan playfully bit the nape of his neck. He drew a little blood and licked it in one swipe of his tongue.

Amazing.

He channelled and Damon hummed in question.

The heat.

Yeah. I could feel everything.

Is it over?

Damon turned around to face him and looked into his eyes. He inhaled deeply and nuzzled into Stefan’s neck, licking with his tongue over the soft skin there.

I think so.

Stefan huffed a little disappointed and Damon chuckled.

I wonder when the next one will be.

Stefan pondered.

Eager for more ay?

Stefan grinned back at him and kissed him, rolling Damon underneath him.

Always, especially when it feels like that.

Hmmn.

I felt everything. Everything inside you, like I was…

Like you were in me.

Yeah.

Stefan pulled their mouths apart and stroked Damon’s face.

“Different from sharing a soul.” He commented and Damon’s eyes glazed as he considered that.

“Yeah, it was.”

“I’ve never felt quite so close to you before.” He admitted and Damon nodded in agreement after a second.

“Guess that’s what the wolves were talking about.” He mumbled.

“If having my own soul, means we can connect like that each heat, then I’m all for it.” Stefan whispered, running his fingers through the tangles that were now in Damon’s locks.

Damon searched his face.

“I guess so.”

“I was too close to the source of you before. Now I get to join completely with you like we are meant to.”

Damon gave a small smile as he realised that was true. No one was supposed to be a Halfling soul. Perhaps they’d been missing out because of that.

Stefan kissed him for a long minute and then nibbled at his chin in a wolf-like manner. Damon tilted his chin upwards obediently, waiting for a bite when they heard a sniffle from across the room. Stefan chuckled and raised himself onto his elbows.

“Saved by the baby.” Damon chuckled.

“Dadda…” Vida whined and began to gurn.

“Back to life and reality.” Stefan said as they both sat up, pulling down the blankets of their cocoon and breathing in the pheromone free air of the room.

Stefan got up and went to Vida, lifting her in her blankets and cooing to her. She settled quickly as Stefan placed her pacifier into her mouth. He could tell she wouldn’t be silence any longer. She was in sync with them – that much was clear.

She kicked her legs unhappily and he set her down onto her feet. She staggered her way to the bedroom door and he opened it for her. She was more interested in her toys than them these days, but that was fine. 

Damon climbed out of bed and moved to their bathroom, turning on the shower. Stefan wrapped a towel around his waist and followed Vida, checking on her movements as Damon washed his scent away. He felt a little territorial about that but it was just the after effects of their union.

As Vida played – chatting away in baby talk to her teddy bear giant, Stefan sat down and opened his laptop again – laughing when he saw that three days had passed. Beth’s email still sat half-read on his screen.

He clicked his tongue and scrolled to the beginning again to refresh his memory…


	57. Chapter 57

Chapter 57 TH

The feeling of the wetness between her thighs increased rather expediently once Toby had fallen asleep after suckling. Klaus had taken the baby up to her room and placed him in his cot as she tried to prepare herself for what would follow.

They would have the heat in his bed. It made more sense that way and would allow Toby to sleep undisturbed by their activities. She wasn’t sure what to do about tending to him if she was unable to string a sentence together like last time, so Klaus had compelled a human nurse to live in and care for Toby’s needs, whilst being able to retain no memory of whatever noises or activity she may observe in the mansion.

She looked to his bed, sniffing the scent of his musk in the air. Before she could stop herself, she’d crawled onto the bed and wrapped herself up in the blankets, pressing her face into them and breathing his smell deeply into her lungs. She groaned in pleasure at the tingle it sent down to her loins as she did so. God he smelled so good. He smelled almost like the bakery in the town she had grown up in as a child. She used to stroll past it on the way to school every day and smell the biscuits and warm bread baking. The smell made her salivate and she longed to run her tongue over the source of it – all over his body.

She heard him inhale in surprise to see her writhing amongst his sheets, almost cocooned by them and paused at the doorway. She pulled her face up, growling and looked towards him. He actually looking slightly afraid and sheepish – not a familiar expression on him. She’d have to tread lightly.

“He’s still asleep. The nanny has set up in one of the other bedrooms.” He said, his throat narrow as he tried to control his urge to spring onto the bed and grab her.

“Come closer.” She begged and he flared his nostrils unsure. “It’s not like you to be shy Nick.”

“It’s not like you to be in heat.” He replied.

“Please, I need to smell you up close.” She said in request and he moved forward tentatively.

She reached out and pulled him down on top of her. He tried not to tighten his arms around her too possessively as she ran her nose up his throat and into his neck. She was scenting him, he realised. She rolled them over and licked hungrily at his skin, causing his loins to heat. He held her lightly, allowing her to do what she wanted while he tried to calm his own senses.

Desire. Lust!

She channelled and he exhaled and gyrated slightly, feeling how hot her body was against him. He could smell her body fluids all the way down the hall when he’d approached.

“Wait love, remember your switch.” He said a little breathless and she looked down at him, her face flushed and waiting. “Your fertility switch.”

“I don’t care.” She said dismissively and tucked her head under his chin, nibbling down the fabric covering his chest as he grunted and ran his fingers into the hair at the back of her head.

“Elizabeth. Stop.” He exhaled and she clutched his sides possessively and licked the side of his cheek.

Like fresh bread baking.

She channelled and he cupped her face and made her look at him. Her pupils were as wide as saucers with lust.

“Listen to me, love. Turn off your fertility.”

“We don’t have to Nick, let’s make some more babies. Give me your baby please.” She sucked one of his thumbs into her mouth and he flipped her onto her back.

She spread her legs eagerly, reaching down to pull her clothing off, when he caught her hands and raised himself up into a seating position.

“I won’t have our first time together clouded by a heat or instinct.” She squirmed unhappily. “Turn the fertility off or I will leave you alone and sweating for the next three days until this is over.” He warned.

“You wouldn’t do that!” She cried out in frustration and he tilted his head and drew her a small smirk.

“Try me.” He said and she frowned. “Now, turn it off.”

She deflated a little but nodded, giving in and focussed on the switch he had programmed into her brain for just this occasion. He watched her closely, reading her through the channeling web, until he was satisfied that she had done it.  
He released her hands and she huffed at him.

“A little too soon to add to our family love.” He said gently and her eyes brightened at his words.

He thought of she and Toby as family. She’d hoped it would come to feel like that for him, but he hadn’t actually verbalised that before. She felt her chest bursting with love and want and she pulled him to her mouth. He allowed it, but paused just before their lips met.

“I hope that you won’t remember what we do now, so that I can demonstrate how well I’m going to sate you later.”

“Kiss me.” She tilted up towards him and he lowered his plumb pink lips to hers.

His lips were so soft and full. She moaned at the taste of him. He tasted like red wine and biscuits – sweet and spicy and warm. She got lost in them as she nibbled and licked inside of his mouth. His whole being surrounded her, cradling her head and neck as he turned his face slightly to an angle and returned the worshipping of mouths and tongues. She’d forgotten how good a kisser he was.

As they continued to kiss, she ran her hands down his muscular back, pulling his shirt out of his jeans and opening her eyes to look at his peaceful expression as he kissed her back with as much enthusiasm. His eyelashes were so blond and long, it made him look like a seraph. She’d make a devil out of him during this heat.

She began to push at his jeans and he pulled back and stopped their kissing, looking down at her and breathing hard.

“Give me a moment.” He whispered and removed himself from the bed.

She curled into herself, pulling off the rest of her clothes as she waited. Her underwear came away soaked and she slid her fingers down. She’d never been so wet – clearly this was more than her body’s usual reaction to being so ready for sex. She slid her fingers inside of herself and turned her face into his pillow, breathing his smell and imagining they were his fingers inside of her. Her insides were incredibly sensitive to every movement and she felt as though she could climax from just this. She wanted it to be him though, so she removed them and looked towards his en-suite impatiently.

“Hurry Nick please.” She breathed and he re-emerged still clothed with a box in his hands.

“What are you doing?” She sat up, feeling her stomach flutter.

“I can’t tarnish our first time making love like this.” He said and walked to the bed, placing the box down.

It was full of sex toys. She frowned, groaning confused and looked to him desperately.

“No. Nick please you can’t leave me alone like this!”

“I’m not leaving. Not this time.” He said and she looked to him confused. “But I want our first time to be memorable, so I will help you through this until I can taste you when you really want me.” 

There was an edge of loss of control in his voice that turned her on so much that she knew she’d agree to whatever he wanted as long as she could have him remain with her.

“Ok.” She nodded and he smiled a genuinely excited smile.

She lay back and he let his eyes roam her body, unashamedly.

“Take your clothes off too.” She requested and he shook his head.

“I don’t trust myself love.” He admitted and climbed onto the bed, leaning down to kiss her again.

She wrapped her arms around him and they fell back into the enjoyment of their lips connecting. He stroked down to her inner thighs and she opened her legs for him, feeling more excited the nearer his fingers travelled down to her sweet spot.

Desire!

He channelled and she moaned into his mouth as she felt his fingers gently circle her labia, teasing but not quite touching her clitoris. She held tighter to him as he began a torturous pattern of circling and getting nearer to her core, but then retreating again. God he was good at this.

Please Nick, please!

She begged and she felt his lip curl into a smile against hers. He slid one of his fingers blessedly over her core which was now wet and throbbing for attention and she jumped under him and bit his lip. He growled in the back of his throat and kissed her with more passion, letting his finger rub back and forwards over the soft nerve bundle until she was arching and whimpering into his mouth. Then he slipped his finger inside. She panted and arched, gyrating and he dragged his mouth away from hers and sat back, watching her squirm as he gently cupped her sex with the rest of his hand and fingers in ownership.

She moaned curse words and grabbed at the sheets with one hand while tracing her fingertips down her chest to her breasts. His face was an amusing picture of lust and physical restraint. It was nice being able to induce this in him, it turned her on all the more.

She licked her lips and felt him leaning over her more, watching her face as he slid another finger in and making her gasp.

“Nick.” She whispered, closing her eyes as she lightly stroked across her nipples.

He sucked in a deep breath and began to curve his fingers back towards himself, beckoning her climax at the call of his fingertips. She shivered and opened her mouth. He bit his lip, flexing his fingers again and stroking her g-spot lightly. She began to pant and gyrate at the touch and he leaned down and licked across her stomach, sniffing how her skin smelled like melted caramel.

She reached up and grabbed the back of his head, twisting his hair in her fingers as she pulled him down towards her mouth but he had other plans and dove into her bosom taking a nipple into his mouth. She cried out in surprise and he used his tongue to worship the erect bundle as he moved his fingers slowly in and out of her, curving his fingertips when entering again until she was moaning incoherently and climaxing like a tornado.

He felt her body jerk with the intensity of it and fought down his own erection. She panted, her heart thundering and he moved his face up to her neck and kissed her throat as she relaxed. He wasn’t sure how long her heat would last – it seemed to differ amongst wolves he’d known. He just hoped her could keep up with her needs. Now that his wolf side had been magically repressed in exchange for his life, he couldn’t feel what she was feeling. The urge to breed and mate felt like a diluted memory. He hoped that he would still be able to satisfy her.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

Stefan wandered into the bedroom, stretching out his limbs and grinning when he saw Damon and Vida asleep curled up together. He moved to the bed, stroking through Vida’s curls as she unconsciously sucked her thumb.  
He leaned down, pressing a soft kiss onto Damon’s lips and humming in the back of his throat.

Love, my dark haired one.

Damon stirred and opened his eyes a fraction.

It’s time to try her on lunch again. Human lunch.

She’s sleeping Stefan.

Stefan smiled as he heard the grunt in his channelling tone and he rubbed their noses together.

“We still need to get your car back.” He reminded and Damon’s eyes opened fully this time as he remembered the fact that his precious Camaro was still sitting abandoned in the woods by the traveller’s former camp.

Shit!

He sat up, nudging Vida awake as he did so and she began to gurn unhappily, turning into a full blown screaming fit when Stefan lifted her into his arms and cooed at her. She did not enjoy being awoken from a nap and she liked to make that abundantly clear.

Damon got off of the bed and grabbed his cell to check the time. Stefan moved with Vida through to the lounge, bouncing her and wiping her tears away as he cooed and tried to get her interested in eating. She had a tantrum as he strapped her into her feeding chair and Damon walked through and spoke to her in a tone of sternness that had her silencing immediately and studying him as though she was trying to ascertain if he was being serious in his chastisement.

Stefan chuckled impressed and she looked to him too. He knelt down in front of her and offered her a bowl of banana. She grumbled, her eyes tingling slightly and Stefan ate a little of it himself.

“You know the rule princess.” Damon said, moving around and keeping an eye on her. “If you want the good daddy juice, you gotta eat the human stuff first.”

She begrudgingly lifted the banana pieces and began to eat, sucking at them and sticking her fingers into her mouth as Stefan encouraged. Damon moved past him looking for his car keys.

“Wait and we’ll come with you.” Stefan said.

“No. She’ll just give us a hard time on the drive.” Damon drank the dregs of coffee left in an abandoned coffee mug at the sink and Stefan looked at him.

“It’s not safe. What if the travellers still move around there?”

“Doubt it, not when they’ve finally discovered the motherland.” Damon made a gesture of wonder with his hands as he mocked and Stefan exhaled unsure. “I’ll be fine.”

He leaned down and kissed Stefan’s mouth lightly before heading to the door.

“Damon.” Stefan called to him and he turned around. “Take Nathan with you. Please.”

Damon searched his face for a moment before giving a silent nod and leaving. Stefan seemed so fearful of their safety all of the time lately. He’d hoped it might fade but the ties to his mortal experience still hung heavy on him. Stefan seemed to approach their lives as though they were still mortal and on limited time, as though death were waiting behind every decision, every door, behind every stranger. It was disconcerting.

He shook himself off as he headed to Nisha’s lodge. Nathan spent most of his time here, even though he wasn’t getting any sugar from Nisha. Damon chuckled to himself. He’d have to teach him how to use his attributes better, the guy wasn’t getting any younger.

He chapped on the door and entered as was their custom. Nathan was reading on the sofa – what looked like…

“Is that mine?” Damon demanded as he stood in front of him, staring at the worn, dusty family tree album from their home.

Nathan startled, seemingly too transfixed on the pages to have noticed his entry and looked up at him.

“I brought it from the Boarding House.” He said, closing it and setting in on the table.

“And who the hell told you, you could just take shit from my house wolfie? Do you know how old that is?” Damon grabbed the book, rubbing dust from the front cover.

“Oh calm down alpha.” Nathan chuckled, putting his feet on the table and crossing his legs. “It’s my family line too you know.”

“Technicality.” Damon spelled out slowly, unimpressed. 

“Stefan told me to look after it, to see if it could help me figure out how closely we’re related.”

“Of course he did.” Damon sighed exasperated and threw himself into the seat across from him.

“You’re in a mood.”

Damon huffed and sat the album down.

“Need a driver and some wheels. Gotta get my car back from gypsy wondercamp.” He rolled his eyes, trying to hide his concern that his precious car may still be there unharmed.

“Why don’t you just get a new one? You guys are loaded.” Nathan asked and Damon glared at him.

“That car is a classic and it’s mine.”

“Ok alpha.” Nathan held his hands up in peace and Damon relaxed again. “Everything ok?”

“It will be. Let’s go.” Damon stood up and Nathan slowly rose to his feet stretching.

“Nish! Heading out for a bit, you need anything?” Nathan called.

“Get some soda!” She shouted back from the other room.

Damon smirked to himself as they climbed inside of Nathan’s truck and started pulling out of the camp.

“So, you still sleeping on the sofa?” He smirked wickedly.

Nathan rolled his eyes and ignored the question.

“Seriously dude, maybe she’s just not that into you.” Damon continued to tease. “I mean, a lady likes a little foreplay but you gotta take the lead a little.”

“Coz you know so much about women huh?” Nathan said back to him, casting him a glance and Damon chuckled.

“Man if I had a cent for every lady I’d demonstrated the goods to, I could buy a hundred Boarding Houses.”

Nathan looked to him frowning in surprise.

“So…you’ve been…I mean you’re not just into guys?” He seemed genuinely surprised by that and Damon smile faded.

“I’m into Stefan. Singular.”

“So he’s the only guy you’ve been with?”

Damon kept silent and Nathan realised he wasn’t going to answer.

“So you’re a lady killer then.” He changed the subject, hoping to keep Damon talking.

It was rare that Damon shared much about himself with anyone except Stefan and Nathan wanted so badly to know him better.

“Guilty.” Damon’s teasing expression returned. “You could stand to be a little more like me.”

Nathan laughed in response.

“No offense alpha, but I kinda like not pissing so many people off.”

“A little more time in this family and that’ll change brother, trust me on that one.” Damon seemed thoughtful as silence fell between them.

“You never talk about the rest of the family much.”

“Nothing much to say. They either died or Stefan ate them.”

Nathan fell silent in shock and Damon looked to him.

“He didn’t confess that little secret yet huh? In fact it was Stefan who turned me.” He said nonchalantly and Nathan looked to him in horror. “I’m over it but I kinda tried to kill him for about a hundred years before that.”

“You…what?” Nathan gasped.

Damon chuckled.

“Long story.”

Nathan chewed his lip, intrigued.

“So what was Stefan like when he was human? I know being a vampire is supposed to make people change a lot, but he seems so…”

“Human? He’s not.” Damon snorted. 

“Even now that he’s been human again recently?” Nathan cast him a sideways glance and Damon clenched his jaw a little.

Nathan kept his eyes on the road.

“He seems better. More like the way he was when I met him before the spell and wolf stuff.”

“Take this turn off.” Damon instructed.

Sorry, didn’t mean to make you feel…

Nathan channelled and Damon looked at him, seeming a little fatigue suddenly.

“Is everything ok? Was the heat ok?” Nathan was aware of how personal a question it was and he blushed as Damon studied his face.

“Yeah.” He answered and Nathan gave him a small smile.

“Then why are you in such a mood alpha?”

Damon rubbed his face.

“This is about more than getting your car back.” He added.

I’m yours alpha. You can confide in me.

Damon winced at Nathan’s offer and sighed.

Pack. Family.

Nathan added and Damon gave a nod.

“Stefan’s afraid of everything.” He said softly.

“Like what?”

“Everything. Life, death, Vida changing. It’s like he’s sure something bad is going to happen.”

“That’s kinda the way your lives go.” Nathan sighed in partial agreement.

“Yeah, but it’s more than that. He’s chasing ghosts in his head.”

Nathan looked to him in query.

“When we were joined in the heat, we were one again but more than when we shared a soul.”

“I’ve heard that can happen.” Nathan nodded.

“I saw stuff in his head.”

Nathan waited for him to continue.

“His kids. His fake ones anyway. He can’t let them go. It’s like he’s waiting for them to show up again somehow.”

Nathan bit his lip.

“I promised we could have more if he wanted them, but somewhere in his head I think he believes we can make them real.” Damon leaned his elbow against the window and rested his face in his hand as he watched the road.

“He can’t really believe that’s possible. It’s maybe just the last vestiges of hope and grief. The other place he was in wasn’t real.”

“It was real enough to convince him that there were real souls there.” Damon said.

“Wasn’t he talking to a support group or something?”

“He hasn’t been for a few weeks.”

“I’ve been trying to convince Nish to talk to someone. Maybe they could go together.”

“I just want him to stop being afraid that there’s danger around every corner.”

“But there is, for you two anyway.”

“Not helping, wolfie.” Damon exhaled.

“Ok.” Nathan sighed silently.

“Down this way.” Damon leaned forward, scrutinising the landscape and pointed.

Nathan followed his directions until Damon told him to pull over. Damon blurred out of the truck, leaving Nathan catching his breath in surprise. He climbed out, following the blur of colour that had been Damon’s body and walked through the woods, looking for him. He heard him before he saw him.

Evidently the Camaro wasn’t there and he wasn’t best happy. He sighed and jogged to where his voice was coming from, praying that the car hadn’t been set alight or something. He arrived in time to see Damon blurring around and destroying what looked like the remnants of a camp.

“Damon!” he called, trying to get him to stop and calm down, but the growling and cursing continued until the whole area was just broken wood and fabric strewn everywhere.

He found a log to sit on and decided to wait Damon’s temper out. Hell he had time. He looked down at the ground, scuffing his shoes as he heard Damon pant from his exertions and noticed tyre tracks. He stood up and followed them.

“Hey alpha, what kind of tyres do you have on the Camaro?” He asked as he followed the line with his eyes back towards the road again.

“What difference does it make wolfie?!” Damon bit out from behind him.

Nathan sighed in frustration and pointed towards the trail and Damon zeroed in on what he was talking about and walked over to him. His eyes widened and he looked towards the road.

“Someone’s taken it, so it might not be far away.” Nathan said and Damon’s veins appeared in his face, his teeth sharpening in anger. “Damon, we can find it. It’s kind of memorable, ok?”

He put a hand on Damon’s shoulder and Damon’s shirked it off, glaring at him. Jeez. What was Damon’s deal today?

“Look there.” Nathan pointed to larger tracks blending with the Camaro’s. “Tow truck?”

Damon narrowed his eyes and gave a nod of consideration.

“Who’d bother to tow a car away from a camp in the middle of the woods though? Why bother? Unless…”

“Unless someone wanted to get my attention.” Damon sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

Nathan nodded in agreement.

“Who though? The travellers? Who else knew this was your car and where it was?” Nathan asked and Damon stared off into the distance as he thought it through, before groaning and tilting his head back in annoyance. 

“That bitch.” He huffed.

“Who?”

“Michelle, the most useless witch on the planet!” He grunted and Nathan looked to him for more clarification. “She found the travellers for me. I forgot all about her.”

“Why would she steal your car? Is she a friend?”

“Wouldn’t say that, more like a bad memory. Might have known she wouldn’t leave the damn potion alone.”

“What potion?” Nathan frowned.

“Doesn’t matter.” Damon started to head back towards Nathan’s truck, with Nathan trailing behind curiously.

They climbed in and Damon began to text on his phone. Nathan sat, starting the ignition and waiting for instructions.

“This potion, did you steal it from her?” he ventured and Damon glared at him for a second before sighing and softening his expression again.

“You really don’t wanna start opening cans of worms around me brother. Trust me.” He said and Nathan looked to the road ahead. “Long story short – I did her a favour. A witch who can’t separate t.v. show magic from the real deal, shouldn’t have access to any real power.”

“And this potion would have given her that?”

“Or two heads. Who the hell knows, point is, she’s never going to find out.” His phone pinged with a message and he opened it. “Right, let’s go and get my car back.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Stefan swung Vida up into the air in his arms as she squealed and giggled, enjoying the lighter moments of time with him. Their lives were so complicated and tense a lot of the time and he worried that it would rub off on her. They needed to try and get out and socialise more, stay out of trouble and harms way for a while. With that in mind he had begun to build a small play park with the other wolves for the kids in the camp.

His carpentry skills went down a treat and he had a real knack for it. Vida was enjoying helping collect twigs and bringing them to him as he set some sketches aside and tried to visualise where they would put a few swings and a chute. They could probably make them out of wood at the bases but metal would be better.

Vida sat on his knee happy and chatty. Her words were coming along gradually despite the fact that they had very little stimuli for her. They really needed to go get some books and educational toys. Perhaps when they got to New York they could get her sorted out, but he wasn’t sure how much longer she could wait before her learning would be stunted.

A group of the older kids came running past them, chasing an old soccer ball and Vida screamed in excitement and looked at him, clapping her hands.

“It’s a game angel. It’s called Soccer. Can you say Soccer?” He cooed but she was more interested in watching the assembly of girls and boys running around each other and laughing.

“Dadda taught me how to play Soccer.” Stefan smiled and kissed the back of her head as he thought on that.

There had been no soccer in his most recent human life, because there had been no big brother, no rest from the tense relationship with Giuseppe and a war to think about. He sighed and came back to the present when Vida squealed and pointed towards one of the boys as they scored past one of the trees. Stefan chuckled and bounced her, smelling the scent of her hair, when suddenly there was a cry of panic.

He looked up immediately to see one of the boys had fallen over and was in pain and bleeding from some scrapes. He stood up, swinging Vida onto his hip and moved to him.

“Get my dad! Get my dad!” The boy cried out and some of the other children ran to do that as Stefan sat Vida down on the ground and touched the boy’s ankle lightly.

The boy cried out and tried to shield it protectively.

“It’s ok, I’m not going to touch it ok. I just need to have a look. What’s your name?” He asked gently as Vida watched wide eyed.

“Brian.” The boy cried.

“Ok Brian, your dad’s going to be here in a sec, but I’m going to need your help ok? I have to check and see if you’ve broken any bones ok?”

The boy cried again.

“I’m not going to hurt you, you can put your hand on mine ok?” Stefan guided the boys hand onto his own so that he felt as though he had some control and the boy calmed a little and allowed him to touch it gently with his fingertips.

He palpated the tissue as the boy grunted, but thankfully the damaged wasn’t too severe.

“Well done Brian.” He smiled. “No broken bones, just a bad twist so you’re going to have to stay off the foot for a few days.”

“Am I going to lose my foot?”

“No.” Stefan smiled, almost chuckling. “It’s just going to be really gross looking for a few days, all purple and black.”

“Like a scar?” The boy looked intrigued.

“Oh, totally.” Stefan chuckled, winking and the boy gave a watery smile.

“What’s happened?” A voice spoke from behind him and Stefan turned to see the boy’s father approaching.

“Hey Neil, he’s fine, just twisted his ankle a bit. Wrap it in some vinegar and warm keep it warm for a few hours and it’ll be fine in a few days.” Stefan rhymed off and Neil looked at him a little confused.

“Uh, yeah. Thanks Stefan.” Neil lifted the boy up into his arms and carried him back towards their lodge and the other children resumed their game as though nothing had happened.

Stefan watched Neil go, wondering on why he had seemed so odd to him. Vida tugged on his hand and he looked down. She was sucking her thumb but her veins were tingling. He scooped her up and stroked under her eyes, cooing to her to relax. Stupid, he had forgotten about the blood and the fact that she didn’t understand not all blood was as yummy as his and Damon’s. Still, she hadn’t tried to attack the boy despite his bleeding so that was a good thing.

He decided to call it a day with the playground plans and head back. Hopefully Damon would be back with the Camaro soon.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They pulled up outside a house and Damon placed a hand on Nathan’s shoulder as he moved to remove his seatbelt.

“Better leave this one to me brother, she’s bat shit crazy.” Damon advised and Nathan nodded silently but frowned.

The Camaro was parked out front like a beacon and Damon dragged his hands across the side of it, checking it wasn’t scratched or damaged. The door to the house opened and he looked up casually, keeping his expression blank.

“Figured you’d come looking.” She snorted and folded her arms.

“You figured right.” He gave a patronising smile. “You’re lucky there isn’t a scratch or I’d have ripped your head off.”

She shook her head at him.

“Let’s get down to this shall we? Where’s the potion? You promised it to me in exchange for finding your travellers – where are they all by the way?” She ranted and he gave a chuckle and put his hands in his jeans.

“That’s information for grown-ups little lady and I don’t recall making any promises.”

“Scouts honour you said.” She pointed out and he chuckled. “That potion belongs to me. You’ve stolen it from me twice now. Just give it to me!” She said vexed. “You can’t even use it on yourself anyway, what the hell do you want it for?!”

“Chelle, I shudder to think what would happen to you if you took this.” He pulled a small bottle out of his jacket pocket and she stared at it hungrily. “Power unleashes all other kinds of crap in you, stuff that you’ve hidden, stuff that you can’t control. I’m doing you a favour ladycakes.” He sounded sincere and softened his expression.

She wasn’t fooled. She held her hand out towards the bottle.

“What do you care what happens to me? You made it clear last time you hightailed it out of here leaving a trail of bodies behind you, that I meant nothing to you. I was just a meal and fuck.” She said.

“Yeah well you might say I’ve had a change of heart since then.”

“You have no heart.” She spat and walked towards him. “Give it to me!”

He narrowed his eyes at her for a few seconds and cast a look back at Nathan. Nathan was watching closely, frowning.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in for an iced tea first? Considering you stole my car?” He puffed his chest out a little in indignation. “You’re kind of embarrassing me in front of my friend here toots.”

“Are you kidding? You think I’d give you an invite into my home?” She scoffed. “You think I can’t protect myself even inside, because let me tell you something pretty boy – after you ditched me sans my potion and left me with all of your mess to clean up, I wasn’t complacent. I’ve been learning new magic, growing and now I don’t need fake vampire friends to protect me.”

Damon raised an eyebrow.

“So hand it over and leave. Never come back here again or I’ll make you regret it.”

She held her hand out again and he exhaled and handed the bottle to her. She took it and clutched it to her chest, watching him intently. He stepped back with his hands up in peace and moved to climb into the Camaro. She turned her back and began to ascend the stairs to her house when there was a blur of colour and a scream.

Nathan jumped out of the truck and ran towards the Camaro in time to see Damon leaning over the woman’s body, retrieving the potion bottle and slipping it back into his pocket.

“What happened? Is she ok?” He moved to her hurriedly and Damon caught his shoulder and shook his head.

“Leave it brother.” Damon raised an eyebrow at him and Nathan’s stomach dropped as he realised that Damon had killed her right in front of him, so quickly that neither of the humans saw it coming.

“Come on, there’s a steak house not far from here – does killer onion rings.” Damon chirped and got into the Camaro as though nothing had happened.

Nathan watched him with his mouth open in disbelief, before glancing at the woman’s body. Damon had taken her head right off in one sweep. How could he do that? She hadn’t posed any threat had she? All she’d wanted was that bottle. He felt bile fill his mouth and he turned away, spitting the salty fluid out of his mouth as Damon moved the Camaro and rolled down the window to speak to him.

“Come on I’ll buy you a beer.”

Nathan looked at him, unsure how to respond. Damon tapped the sill of the car door as he rested his elbow on it and sucked his lip into his mouth.

“Probably best to leave this part out of the campfire story for later brother.” He advised and Nathan gave a nod of comprehension.

Damon didn’t want Stefan to know how coldly he had just murdered someone. He climbed back into his truck and followed him along the highway, knowing there was no way in hell he’d be able to stomach a steak after seeing a dismembered head today.


	58. Chapter 58

Chapter 58 TH

“Hey, you seen Damon and Nate?” Nisha popped her head around Stefan’s front door and he shook his head as he played with Vida on her play mat.  
Nisha came in and sat down disappointed.  
“If I don’t get a diet soda soon I will die!” She said melodramatically and he chuckled.  
“Niii.” Vida held out a squeezy toy towards Nisha and she crawled from her chair and accepted it cooing.  
“Oh no…” Vida chirped as she dropped it and they both laughed at her in delight.  
Vida put her hand over her mouth and they did the same gesture.  
“Coffee?” Stefan smiled and Nisha nodded.  
He stood up to put the kettle on. Man he couldn’t wait to get back to civilisation again and get a coffee machine. Living out in the camp had been great but he was starting to miss conveniences. It was strange having lived in a time that didn’t include so many basics that they were all used to and now that he was back again he longed just to have a t.v. to play with, a remote, hell even an iPod. The laptop was helping him feel a little back in tune but it was one of many things that seemed like shiny new toys in comparison to the 19th century life he’d had.  
“So, how did your heat go?” Nisha asked casually, trying to hide her intrigue and Stefan laughed under his breath and continue to make coffee.  
How do you think?  
He channelled and smirked, awaiting her response.   
“Well?” She prompted when he didn’t answer verbally.  
You heard. Hell everyone heard.  
He smirked and stirred some milk into their cups, jumping in surprise when she touched his shoulder from behind.  
“What, you too shy to tell me?” She joked and he frowned for a second before remembering that she wasn’t mated or related to him.  
She couldn’t channel.  
“Sorry.” He chuckled embarrassed and shook his head. “It was great, amazing.”  
She smiled and took her cup from him.  
“I’m glad.”  
“Yours?” he asked gently.  
“I’d forgotten how bad a heat could be. I mean, I haven’t had one in a long time.” She admitted, sipping and avoiding his eyes.  
“Yeah. Well as selfish as it sounds I’m glad I wasn’t going through it alone.” He said.  
“Yeah, it’s wonderful when you have your mate with you.” She said looking down into her mug.  
“Actually I was meaning you.” He said warmly and tilted his head to read her expression.  
She must be thinking of her mate, her dead mate. She looked at him in surprise for a few seconds and then chuckled and nodded.  
“Well, I doubt I can relate to how in heat you were. You mates are so wild.” She grinned in jest and he nodded and called out to Vida not to pull at the toy box which she was currently tilting towards herself.  
They took a seat, watching as Vida ignored Stefan’s instructions like the madam she was. Nisha brought her feet up under her and relaxed, neither feeling the need to speak. This was how it was with them now. They felt so comfortable in each other’s company they didn’t have to fill silences.  
“Na!” Vida moved from Nisha to the toy box, handing her out her favourite toys and Nisha accepted them, kissing her little hands in thanks.  
Stefan smiled as he watched and thought on what it would be like to have more like Vida. He caught himself deep in thought about it and withdrew from the imagery. His heart ached and he swallowed. His boys. He couldn’t stop thinking about them lately. Having Vida here in the flesh helped with the pain of the loss somewhat, but nothing could remove the grief of their non-existence. If only he had a photograph of them, a piece of clothing or a keepsake to prove that they had been real…but they hadn’t been, had they?  
Nisha seemed to sense his change in mood and looked over to him. He stared into his cup, trying to gather himself and she looked away respectfully, guessing where his thoughts had gone.  
“You still think about that other world a lot.” She commented and he swallowed and didn’t answer. “Do you miss it?”  
He glanced at her as she sipped her coffee.  
“No. Not really miss it. It wasn’t real but…” he faltered, swallowing again and she looked to him. “I guess there were some things that I miss.”  
“Do you miss being human?” She asked genuinely.  
“No. I don’t miss feeling so damaged, so vulnerable.” He said. “There was so much pain and illness there.”  
She nodded, unable to really imagine having lived in that time period.  
“You miss some of it though.” She said and he closed his eyes.  
“Yeah.”  
“You had other children.” She prompted, trying to be gentle.  
“Yeah.” He said quietly.  
“You lost them when you came back.” She said.  
“Yeah.” He whispered.  
“Would you go back?” She ventured. “If you could?”  
He looked at her as he considered that idea.  
“No.” he shook his head and looked to Vida. “Damon didn’t exist there and neither did she. My daughter may have looked like her and shared her name but she wasn’t my Vida. Not really.”  
Nisha gave a nod of understanding and sipped from her cup again.  
“Sometimes I wonder what it would be like in heaven.” She mumbled and he turned towards her. “My son is there, with my husband. If I could go and be with them…”   
She paused mid-sentence and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and Stefan reached for her knee, squeezing.  
“But then I have to believe that there is a time for everything. The universe has a plan somehow and I’ll see them again someday. I’m supposed to be here, to live my life and have all the wonderful experiences that we wanted together.” She said, giving a watery smile.  
“I’m sorry.” He said, squeezing her knee again.  
“It’s life.” She sighed. “And those of us left here have to learn how to live it without them. At least we can remember and think about them whenever we want. They don’t disappear as though they never mattered.”  
Stefan sat back against the sofa and pondered on that. They fell into their comfortable silence once again.  
The tell-tale sound of the Camaro entered the camp and Vida turned to look towards the door calling for Damon. Stefan smiled and sat up, watching her as she stood up, using the sofa to support herself and looked at him excitedly.  
“Daady!” She chirped and Stefan chuckled and nodded as she clapped.  
The door opened after a few seconds and Damon walked in, grabbing her up into his arms and making her squeal in delight as he turned her upside down. Nisha stood up, rubbing her hands on her jeans and looking behind him for Nathan.  
“Careful, she just ate.” Stefan chuckled and Damon turned her right side up and kissed her cheeks.  
Nisha laughed and waited for Nathan to come in, but he didn’t.  
“Where’s your partner in crime?” She asked eventually.  
Damon seemed to become aware of Nathan’s absence at that point and looked behind him in surprise.  
“Nathan?” he called, but he was nowhere to be seen.   
Damon turned to her and shrugged.  
“Probably parking his truck.” Damon said and walked over to Stefan, leaning forward to rub their noses together.  
Nisha moved outside and looked around, but there was no sign of Nathan or his truck. She frowned.  
“Did he follow you on the road?” She called back through to Damon.  
“Yup.” He answered simply.  
She looked at her watch. Maybe he’d popped by the seven eleven for her soda. She looked back into Stefan’s lodge, smiling as Vida chatted to Damon animated and pointed at her toys. Damon chuckled and nodded, asking her questions. They seemed happy. It made her chest warm to see that. They looked like a normal family today.  
“If Nate comes back, tell him I’m going for a run.” She said and Stefan nodded.  
Damon shut the door with his foot and bounced Vida on his hip. She squirmed, already losing her interest in him and he sat her down on her feet to play.  
“You get the car ok?” Stefan asked causally.  
“Yeah no probs.” He winked and sat down next to him, sitting back and exhaling.  
“I’ve been thinking a lot while you’ve been gone today.”  
“Hmmn?” Damon closed his eyes for a second.  
“Maybe it’s time we go to New York. There’s not much need for us to stay here much longer now that we know we can handle a heat.”  
Damon turned his head and looked to him in surprise.  
“You’ve just been waiting for me to say it, haven’t you?” Stefan guessed and Damon blinked, thinking. “Do you want to stay here?” Stefan asked.  
“No. I think we’re done here little blood machine.” He nodded.  
“Ok.” Stefan nodded too and stood up to put his coffee cup at the sink.  
“Stefan?”  
“Yeah?” He turned back to look at him, seeing a frown creep across Damon’s expression.  
“What’s brought this on today?”  
“Nothing.” He said and Damon raised an eyebrow. “There’s just not much to do here.”  
Damon nodded in agreement.  
“I made plans for a kid’s playground, but the rest of the pack could build it. They don’t need me for that.” Stefan reasoned and Damon narrowed his eyes at him.  
“But you’re needed somewhere else?” Damon ventured and Stefan leaned back against the counter and folded his arms across his chest.  
What is it little blood machine?  
Stefan took a deep breath as he considered responding.  
“I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the other side, about the life I lived there.”  
Damon grunted and huffed.  
When do you ever stop?  
Damon channelled frustration and jealousy and Stefan tightened in anger.  
“I’m not going to apologise for that!” he snapped and Damon rubbed his face. “I know how you feel about my time there – you’ve made it pretty clear that you want me just to forget about it and move on.”  
“They’re not coming back Stefan.” Damon said pointedly and Stefan felt his stomach clench. “We can have more kids but they’re aren’t going to be your boys ok?”  
Stefan felt nauseous and counted to ten in head as he tried not to explode in anger and grief at the way Damon was dropping such a topic so casually into their conversation. He looked to Damon channelling his feelings and Damon had the good sense to look regretful.  
“I know that.” He said, his throat tight.  
“It doesn’t feel like it.” Damon mumbled. “Why aren’t we enough for you?” he added.  
Stefan let out a long breath, feeling his anger dissipate.  
You two are more than enough. You’re the world.  
Damon nearly snorted but thought better of it.  
“So why are you ready to go to New York all of a sudden?”  
“Because it’s time we started our new life together. I know you hate that I feel like a mortal still and the only way I’m going to be able to live without fear is if we move on.” He explained.  
“Ok.” Damon said.  
“And…” Stefan paused and tilted his chin towards his chest nervously. “I want to go back to school, pick up where I left off in Chicago.”  
“You wanna go back and pretend to be a little student again?” Damon asked on sarcastically. “What’s the point? We have Vida now.”  
“I want to study medicine.” Stefan said plainly. “I am…was a doctor. I want to be again. I want to help people like I couldn’t do before.”  
Damon seemed to get lost in deep thought.  
“Even if we can live forever, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make every minute count. We could contribute something to the world, do something. Damon, what have we really done for the last hundred years? We’ve fought, we’ve killed and fed and fell off of the wagon on and off…maybe it’s time we accomplish something.”  
Damon looked at him.  
“You’ve got it all worked out Stef.” He said.  
Stefan sat down next to him, turning and squeezing Damon’s knees.  
“What do you want to do?” Stefan asked him and Damon flicked his eyes down to Vida. “Damon, we can start fresh. We kind of understand our bodies now, we have friends and family again for support. Now we can build the rest of our lives.”  
“And what do you want me to do?” Damon seemed annoyed and Stefan squeezed his knees. “Tag along beside you like a little puppy?”  
“I want you to really think about what you want, anything you’ve always thought you couldn’t do. It’s time to let yourself live. We have to teach Vida that she can do whatever she wants and so we have to live it ourselves.”  
“I’ve told you a hundred times I like who I am Stefan.” He seemed angry and Stefan couldn’t understand why.  
Confusion.  
Damon huffed and closed his eyes again.  
“I’m no good at anything but killing Stefan and I don’t mind that.”  
Stefan grabbed his head forward and kissed him fiercely, trying to stop him spiral into self-loathing for just a second, so he could figure out how to respond. Damon held him back, wrapping his arms around Stefan’s back and pulling him onto his lap.  
Vida chirped and giggled, watching them and they parted mouths, breathing hard.  
Where did that come from?  
Damon channelled and Stefan cast Vida a quick glance, before standing up and pulling Damon with him. Damon licked his lips and looked at Stefan’s mouth. Stefan blurred to the front door, bolting it and popped Vida into her playpen, turning back to Damon was quickly as he could.  
There’s plenty of things you’re good at.  
He channelled and Damon’s cheeks flushed.  
Only one is for me.  
Stefan added as he undid the top button of his jeans. Damon’s pupils exploded and blurred them both into the bedroom, his head spinning in surprise at the unexpected proposition as he threw Stefan onto the bed onto his back. They both scrambled out of their clothing immediately. Damon moved to climb onto the bed when Stefan sat up and pushed him back towards the bathroom.  
Stefan slammed him against the tiles and kissed him hard and deep. They panted and bit at each other’s lips as they fumbled, grabbing at each other and squeezing flesh. They couldn’t hear anything but the sounds of their mingled breaths bouncing off of the walls in the small room.  
“Stefan…” Damon whispered in desire and Stefan squeezed Damon’s behind in response.  
Fuck me mate. Show me how strong you are.  
Stefan channelled and Damon flipped them around, leaning Stefan over the sink and parting his legs. Stefan closed his eyes as Damon entered him. He gasped at the depth and tilted his head down. Damon was taking no prisoners in this session as he took him deep and rough. The mirror on the wall rattled with their movements and Stefan had to brace his hands on the sink as his insides squealed with joy. He kept his mouth open to breathe and moan and Damon bit the scruff of his neck, drooling down his skin as he hammered in and out.  
Love you, love you  
Stefan, mine, no one else can have you…  
Stefan opened his eyes at the strange anguish Damon’s channelling held within it, but he couldn’t think enough to formulate a response as his insides grabbed Damon’s manhood and pulled him in deeper for milking.   
Damon collapsed into him, holding onto the sink for dear life as he was juiced and they both gasped and writhed together. He pushed his weight against Stefan’s back, shuddering with every release and Stefan gathered his wits enough to open his eyes and stare at them in the mirror’s reflection. Damon had his face in the crook of Stefan’s shoulder. There was nothing more exciting than this – seeing the evidence of Damon’s rapture. Damon scrunched up his face as his cheeks blushed and he lay his weight fully onto him as the last of the milking pulled at him.  
Stefan watched throughout, shivering in pleasure but unwilling to stop watching Damon’s expression. He wanted him beneath him, wanted to soak up every moment of Damon’s pleasure. Damon’s member softened and Stefan pushed back. Damon withdrew from him and leaned back into the tiled wall behind him to breathe and recuperate.  
Stefan took a few deep breaths and pulled on Damon’s arms, leading him into their bedroom, listening with his wolf ears for Vida fussing. She was talking away to her teddy so she was fine. He pushed Damon down onto the bed and Damon sank boneless.  
“I’m going to look after you mate.” Stefan whispered, crawling onto the bed. “I’m going to show you the life we deserve. The life we can have. No more recriminations, no more baggage or pain. I’m going to be who I am and you are going to learn who you are and be whatever you want to be.”  
Damon looked up at him, showing vulnerability in his gaze and Stefan kissed him gently, stroking his thighs and raising them around his hips. Stefan leaned into him, wrapping Damon’s feet around him securely. Damon moaned into his mouth and tilted his pelvis eagerly.  
You know I think you prefer to be like this. On your back with me in you, my dark haired one.  
Damon tilted into him again and made a small whimpering sound.  
So strong and stubborn but you need taking care of, mate. You need this don’t you?  
As Stefan channelled he entered Damon’s tightness and Damon gasped and grabbed onto Stefan’s shoulders.  
Take me, all at once.  
Stefan channelled and pulled out almost completely before diving in again. Damon gasped again.  
Love you. Love your passion and want.   
He thrusted and Damon gasped at each thrust deep inside of his body.  
Love how angry you get when you think I’m in danger.  
“Uh!”  
Love how I am all you think about.  
“Stefan…”  
Love how you love me more than anything in the world.  
“Yeah…” Damon tilted his head back.  
Love how we are one, our soul is one even though its two...oh god Damon…  
Stefan’s insides quickened and he sped up his thrusts, causing both of them to pant and kiss furiously.  
Mine, my Damon! My darling, my love…  
They both exploded together in a fit of convulsing and cries as they grabbed at each other. Stefan’s entrance pulsed, achingly wanting to milk and the combination of that with his manhood erupting almost made him faint with intensity.  
He dropped fully onto Damon and breathed. Damon’s heart pounded in his chest loudly and sweat rolled across his rib cage onto the sheets beneath them. Stefan absent-mindedly licked at the trail of sweat and Damon gasped in surprise.  
“Where did that come from?” Damon asked breathlessly.   
“You’re adorable when you’re in a mood.” Stefan whispered as he scented Damon’s chest, luxuriating in the scent of roses.  
Damon gyrated against him.  
“I want to protect you now. Let me.” Stefan said as he traced his fingers over Damon’s muscular abs.  
Damon grunted and Stefan lifted his head to look at him.  
“You once said that I forced you into things. I don’t want to do that. I want to go to New York because I’m ready to move on. I think you are too.”  
“I am.” Damon said gently.  
“You always feel like you have to protect me and Vida, but when you found me in that other world you couldn’t. I wanted to protect you and I didn’t even know you really.”  
Damon closed his eyes and sighed.  
“I think, that you can’t get used to the idea that I don’t need protecting.”  
Damon opened his eyes again and looked at him.  
“I grew up without you. I had to learn all of the hard stuff on my own and I survived brother. I survived.”  
Damon flexed his body full of discomfort and Stefan ran his tongue up to one of his nipples and tickled it. Damon opened his mouth and let out a sound of pleasure. Stefan suckled for a little while until he was sure that Damon’s milk would not make an appearance and then he looked up at him again.  
“You’ve always had to be strong even when you were just a boy too. I love you for it but that’s not what I need anymore.”  
“What do you want Stefan?” Damon whispered, looking depressed.  
“I want you to want things for you and only you. What do you want to be Damon? With no restrictions?”  
“I don’t care as long as I have you.”  
“No, that’s just what you’ve convinced yourself all these years. I’ve always known you wanted more. Vida is an example. I never would have thought you’d wanted children but when we found out I was carrying her…”  
Damon turned his head to avoid his gaze and Stefan kissed his chest again, stroking his fingers up and down the outside of Damon’s legs, eliciting a shiver of response.  
“You have a new brother, one you can protect and guide.” Stefan whispered thinking of Nathan, moving his kisses further down towards Damon’s groin. “He needs you.”  
Damon’s manhood began to harden once more.  
“But what I need is a partner. Someone who I can spoil and protect and trust.” He whispered as he took Damon’s erection into his mouth and Damon flexed his hips moaning and writhing.  
Damon’s skin was salty from their lovemaking and Stefan took time tasting him, building the release slowly as Damon whispered curse words and carded his fingers through Stefan’s hair. All too soon it was over and he swallowed Damon’s essence.  
Damon lay panting and unable to move and Stefan traced his tongue up his body in one long line to his neck wherein he bit down to feed. Damon almost sobbed in pleasure and made small mewling noises. Stefan pulled away and rubbed their noses together.  
“Stefan. I did something you’re not going to like.” Damon whispered, his eyelids half shut from post coital glow and Stefan leaned on his elbow and looked at his face, stroking his fingers through Damon’s hair.  
“Tell me.”  
“You’re not going to like it.” Damon whispered with some anxiety in his tone.  
“You said that already.” Stefan smiled and scented his cheek slowly.  
Damon closed his eyes and the scent of roses filled the room. Stefan dragged his fingertips up and down Damon’s chest, watching as his skin turned to gooseflesh.  
“Tell me.” He repeated calmly.  
“Nathan and I had a disagreement.” Damon admitted quietly.  
“I guessed as much. He’s always so close by, waiting to fight with you.” Stefan said as he drew circles around Damon’s collarbone.  
Damon looked at him I surprise.  
“He worships you Damon, like I did when we were human. He looks up to you.”  
Damon grunted and looked at the ceiling.  
“He might not anymore.”  
“What happened?” Stefan continued his stroking.  
“There was difference of opinion on how to keep us all safe – us and the other mates.”  
“Why?”  
“Even when people could expose us or come after us, Nathan still wants to befriend them, make friends and live in peace.” Damon said sarcastically. “You can’t trust people who can hold something over you, not when we have Vida to think about.”  
“Mmn.” Stefan mumbled in agreement and Damon looked at him in surprise that he wasn’t getting angry or pent up.  
“He bit me, called me a monster, vampire bastard etc.” Damon said bluntly.  
“What did you do?” Stefan asked, pausing in his ministrations and Damon huffed.  
“He was bent out of shape and stormed off. I let him.” Damon admitted and shrugged. “After I got him back for biting me.”  
“Who did you threaten?” Stefan repeated.  
“No one important.”  
“Damon.” Stefan exhaled. “Who?”  
“Some chick I knew from a while back who thought I owed her some power. We both know what happens when power is in the wrong hands.”  
“What kind of power?”  
“Just hocus pocus, but she was the one who helped the travellers grab me. She couldn’t be trusted Stefan.” He said in his defence. “She had to go.” He said again anxiously as he searched Stefan’s eyes.  
Stefan pulled him into a soft kiss.  
“Whatever you did, you did it to protect our family.” Stefan said and Damon searched his face stunned.  
“She was human Stefan.” He added, trying to figure out why Stefan was bursting his balls over taking a human life like he normally would. “I killed her.”  
Stefan nodded and placed a small kiss on his mouth again.  
“You know how I feel about killing Damon.” Stefan said but pulled back to look into his face again. “But if there’s anyone that could hurt Vida, I know what side of the battle I’ll be on.”  
Damon stared at him stunned and Stefan continued.  
“Nathan is human. He doesn’t understand what war is and that’s what we are against every day. We are at war with any other vampires or wolves or Klaus haters that are out there. He’s too young to know what it’s like to live through that like we have. I hope he never has to.”  
“So…you’re not mad?” Damon asked tentatively and Stefan shook his head.  
Damon remained in shocked silence as Stefan nuzzled his neck and began to scent him again. What was happening?  
“What the fuck just happened?” Damon cupped Stefan’s face and directed him to his face again. “Am in the twilight zone or something?”  
“No.” Stefan chuckled. “I just remember the brutality of war.”  
Damon searched his eyes.  
“I was there and I know it wasn’t real but it felt like it was for me. I can’t forget the fear, the pain, the sacrifice. I can’t stand by and let it happen again, not to my family. I am going to do whatever it takes to make sure that the people I love are safe. If that means getting rid of some humans to do so, then so be it.”  
Damon blinked at him in astonishment.  
“Human, wolf, vampire, traveller…all of us have the capacity to do evil. I’ve been stupid to think that because people are human that they are innocent. That’s not always true. The fact that that angel offered to take our baby to heaven before she’d even had a chance to live, proved that to me.”  
“She what?!” Damon spluttered, but Stefan kissed him and cooed to calm him, placing his hand on Damon’s chest.  
“What I’m saying is that I know what is right and wrong. All I can do is live by that. Killing someone was wrong Damon, but if she wanted to hurt us, then I understand what you did and I know now that there’s someone waiting to teach her that on the other side. If you really felt like she would hurt us, then I stand by your decision.”  
“Don’t.” Damon’s eyes widened in fear. “Don’t trust me little blood machine. I don’t know shit. I just do what I want.”  
Stefan smirked and traced Damon’s lips with his fingers. Damon took his hand in his and squeezed.  
“Stefan, I know you’re still trying to make things work. I know you still don’t know how to make sense of everything.”   
Stefan kissed his lips gently.  
“But don’t forget what I am. All of me.” Damon continued.  
“I know who you are.” Stefan said.  
“I don’t make the right choices ever. I’m…I’m…”  
“What do you want to be?” Stefan asked.  
“I don’t know.” Damon swallowed and Stefan sat up, looking down at him lovingly.  
“Will you let me look after you? Let me help you?” Stefan asked.  
Damon swallowed again and frowned.  
“Trust me. You don’t have to be so afraid and on alert anymore. I don’t need you for that now. I just need you to be mine.”  
Damon closed his eyes, feeling emotional and fatigued.  
“I want to start fresh in New York.”  
“I get it.” Damon whispered.  
“I enrolled in medical school today.”  
Damon looked up at him and gave a weak smile.  
“Anne and Michael have finished the work on our house.”  
Damon grunted in acknowledgement.  
“Vida is ready to go to nursery soon.”  
Damon frowned in anxiety as Stefan continued.  
“And I have a marriage license all ready.”  
Damon’s heart stopped and he stared at him.  
What?  
You heard me.  
You want to…you want to…  
“I knew there was something missing even when you didn’t exist in my world and now that I’m back I can’t imagine my life without you ever again.” Stefan said gently.  
“But I’m, we’re…” Damon stuttered.  
“We are so much more than that and to be honest, although I got over the fact that we were brothers once we slept together and mated, there was always a part of me that fought against us being brothers.” Stefan took a pause and Damon listened, his skin prickling. “The time I spent away from you in the other world has changed me in more ways than you can imagine. I had a wife. I knew the vows of marriage even when I didn’t feel anything for her anymore, but you…You are…” Stefan struggled and Damon sat up to face him.  
“I love you so much. I love how much you love our daughter, how fiercely you protect us. I want everyone to know that you’re mine properly.”  
Damon opened his mouth to breathe and Stefan cupped his face with both hands.  
“Will you marry me mate?” Stefan whispered and Damon sucked in a breath.  
“Yes.” He squeaked and Stefan chuckled.  
“I want to have a real marriage. I want to save people, help people like I couldn’t before. I want to help Vida become whatever she wants to be without fear of what she is. I want to show you how strong you are and how wonderful Damon. I’m going to. I’m going to show you.” He promised and kissed him passionately as Damon held his arms and tilted his head to allow access.  
After a few minutes they separated and Stefan rubbed their noses together.  
“I miss my boys but I can let them go now. I want more Damon but I want our children. I want our babies.” Stefan whispered and Damon growled low in his throat and grabbed him, pulling him into in his lap.  
“I’m going to give you the world.” Stefan growled as he scraped his teeth against Damon’s throat. “And I will.” He vowed as they lay back into the mattress again to snooze.


	59. Chapter 59

Chapter 60 TH

Damon awoke to the smell of coffee and Stefan. He opened his eyes and sighed. He was still on the sofa. When had he fallen asleep? His head was now on Stefan’s lap. He flexed his muscles and felt Stefan fingers card through his hair.

“Morning.” Stefan said gently and Damon hummed and closed his eyes again.

Love.

Love.

“Haven’t seen you sleep this much for a while.” Stefan commented. “You feeling ok?”

Damon nodded and snuggled his face into Stefan’s thigh, kissing through the fabric.

“Growing a conscience is tiring huh?” Stefan chuckled and Damon sat up to look at him questioningly. 

Stefan gave a small smile and expression of intrigue and Damon swallowed.

“Nathan told me what happened yesterday.” Stefan said and Damon blinked, before rounding his shoulders and clearing his throat.

“Of course he did.” He grunted and his expression hardened in self-defence. “Like you said, he doesn’t get that we’re always going to be at war.”

Stefan tilted his head, narrowing his eyes.

“You left out a little though didn’t you?”

Damon raised his eyebrows but kept his expression firm.

“What potion did she want from you?”

Damon huffed and shook his head looking irritated.

“Damon?” Stefan grunted sternly and Damon stood up, stretching. “What was so dangerous about her having it that you killed her?”

“She was a witch, a shitty weak one, but a witch Stef.”

“And the potion was to do what?”

Damon rubbed his face, deliberating and Stefan pushed his mind into Damon’s, halting Damon’s movements and making him turn to look at him.

Don’t.

Then tell me.

Damon sighed resigned and sat back down.

“It’s a battery…kind of.”

“A battery?”

Damon looked at him.

“It’s like a supernatural juice-box for the ambling supernatural.” Damon smirked.

“What the hell are you talking about? Speak English please.” Stefan sighed.

“I got it from a guy in New Orleans. It’s supposed to enhance power or basically amplify it. I got it in exchange for some of my blood. Some dude’s kid was bashed up in an accident and he…”

Stefan sat forward, interrupting him as he began to rant the tale.

“An amplifier of power?” He clarified and Damon nodded.

“Michelle never had much power. She wanted to be stronger so I got it for her.” Damon admitted and sat back to signal that he was finished in his explanation.

“Why? Why would you do that for her?” 

Damon shrugged.

Damon. 

“It was a trade.”

“What did she do for you?” Stefan pushed and Damon waved him off. “She cast a spell for you?”

Damon snorted.

“She could barely do that. Nah, all she was good for was scrying.”

“Who were you looking for?”

Damon searched his eyes for a second.

You.

“Me? When?” Stefan asked in surprise.

“Way back when. It doesn’t matter coz I found you on my own anyways. So I kept the potion.” He said by way of explanation.

Stefan swallowed as he thought on that.

“When you were hunting me. You used her to try and find me.”

“Yeah. Water under the bridge.” Damon waved it off again.

“Which time was that? One of your failed attempts to kill me?” Stefan narrowed his eyes and Damon bristled in discomfort, before regaining his equilibrium.

“I still got you good.” He smirked to himself and then his smile fell as he looked at Stefan again.

Guilt. Remorse. Shame.

He channelled. 

This was all before they were in love, while they still hated each other.

Stefan looked towards the fire, which was now completely out and black and took a breath. He remembered that Damon very well and it still scared him to think on how much pain he had caused. Damon had killed friends and lovers, even causal acquaintances to hurt him. Still, it was in the past and Damon was his entire world now.

Damon reached over and linked their fingers together, seeking forgiveness and Stefan exhaled and squeezed their fingers together.

“She knew that we were mates. She might have been weak but she wasn’t dumb. I met Marcus at her house and she would have heard our conversation. She knew and if she’d had the potion and became stronger, she might have tried to hurt us. She had plenty of reason to get back at me.” He mumbled.

“Ok.” Stefan said and looked at him. “Where is the potion?”

Damon looked over to his jacket, hanging over the armchair and Stefan let go of his hand and moved to it, reaching into the pocket and drawing the small bottle out for inspection.

“You gave some of your blood in exchange.” He clarified. 

“Yeah.”

“Before we were together though, before we were mated?”

“Yeah, way before so we don’t have to worry about it being used against us.” Damon soothed. “Our blood is nothing like the blood I gave in exchange.”

“Good. At least that’s something.” Stefan nodded.

Stefan tucked the bottle into his pocket and looked to him.

“Ok, we should tell everyone we’re leaving and you have some apologising to do.” Stefan folded his arms across his chest.

Damon grunted. Stefan moved around his still form, leaving him to process how he was going to do something so monumental as apologising for being a blood thirsty killer to his human wolf brother of sorts. Truth was, Stefan had no idea how he would apologise and explain himself to Nathan had he done such a thing, but he didn’t want to acknowledge that.

The day wore on and the camp was filled with the knowledge of their leaving. Most of the wolves expressed sadness that they would be leaving but secretly Stefan knew that some were glad, relieved even.

Constance hugged him tight and thanked him for being there for her when she was giving birth – even though Damon had actually been the one to be there. Still, she felt a kinship to Stefan, not unlike Nisha – who was taking their plan to leave today the hardest.

“Have you made all of your arrangements yet?” Nisha asked, her voice tight in her throat with pain and Stefan nodded, watching as Vida pulled on her hair while sitting in her lap.

“We’ll leave in a couple of hours.”

“Oh. Great.” She gave a smile borne of tension and kissed Vida’s head.

“Naaaa…dadda daaaaaa guuuuu weeeeee!” Vida told her animatedly and she laughed and nodded. 

“You, dadda and daddy are going away?” She asked her and Vida laughed delighted and clapped her hands. “That sounds exciting!”

Vida giggled and curled into her chest, looking at Stefan shyly.

“So, you’ve got a home in New York to go to.”

“Yeah, Anne and Michael have been preparing it for us.” Stefan nodded.

“The couple who are your oldest? Brown hair?” Nisha tried to remember them.

“Yeah. I guess they are like our oldest members, even though Klaus is technically blood too.” Stefan thought on that.

“They’re like the parents of all of you.” Nisha smiled and he nodded.

“I guess. I know that Anne is very fond of Damon. She feels like we are her children. She’s saved our asses many times.”

Vida squirmed unhappily and Nisha let her drop to her feet and wander about the room.

“Has Damon talked to Nathan yet?” She asked, trying to avoid his eyes and seem nonchalant.

“You tell me.” He fired back at her.

She gave a shrug and sighed.

“He told you what happened?”

“Yes.” She said simply and he stiffened in his chair.

“I know that you guys might not understand how careful we have to be but…”

“Stefan.” She sighed, shaking her head and he paused. “You are just beginning to understand what it’s like to have to fear everyone outside of your circle.”

He sat up straighter, waiting for her to continue.

“More than anyone, we understand what it’s like to be hunted, to be sought out. Hell, for hundreds of years your kind have…” She paused and closed her eyes, “Vampires…almost drove us to extinction. We are only here because we learned to choose our friends wisely. Nathan understands why Damon did what he did. He may not agree but he understands the reasoning behind it. It’s the lack of feeling, that he doesn’t understand.”

Stefan listened attentively, unconsciously channelling feelings of irritation and annoyance that she couldn’t feel.

“You aren’t the only ones to have been hunted Nisha. We have been hunted by humans, by wolves, by witches from the beginning.” He said, his voice laced with tension. “My brother and I were hunted and killed by our own father and then afterwards by people we had known all of our lives and their kin and their kin and so on.”

They fell into silence – the strain of hundreds of years of rivalry between their species rising to their exterior thinking. Still, they were not on opposite sides of this fence anymore. The mates were born potential wolves and vampires due to circumstance.

Vida paused at the tension in the room and began to cry in confusion and both Stefan and Nisha rose to their feet at the same time to comfort her. Vida batted both of them away as they reached for her, looking at each other in surprise at her reaction.   
She screamed and Stefan lifted her, cooing and bouncing her as she fought to push his face away from hers.

After a moment or two of Nisha rattling a toy at her and trying to calm her down, Nathan opened the door to the lodge and looked to her. She reached hands out to him beseechingly and he moved to Stefan, taking her from him and Stefan frowned and allowed it.

Nathan stared at her face intensely, obviously channelling to her and Nisha began to speak to him, unknowingly being ignored as he concentrated.

What are you saying to her?

Stefan channelled and Nathan kissed Vida’s forehead as she put her arms around his neck and snuggled her face into his chest.  
“She’s just saying goodbye.” Nathan said softly and pressed his cheek to Vida’s head, ruffling the curls growing there as he held her.

Damon came in and moved to Stefan automatically, pressing their noses together and kissing him on the lips. Stefan kissed back in surprise and tilted his face upwards to allow Damon to scent his throat. Damon licked a strip of his throat towards his jaw and sighed, holding him tight around his waist and Stefan opened his eyes and looked to Nathan.

Nathan was avoiding his eyes and seemed to be blushing. Surely after all of this time he couldn’t still have feelings for him?  
Want you little blood machine. Before we have to sit in a car for hours.

Damon channelled, resting his face in Stefan’s neck and Stefan held him around his back and smiled.

“What time are you leaving?” Nathan cleared his throat as Vida looked to Damon and grinned at the closeness of her parents.

“In an hour or so.” Stefan said and patted Damon’s back, surprised that Damon didn’t move away.

They were in company for god sake and normally Damon was so private about touching like this.

“Ok. Need any help to pack anything?” Nathan asked as Nisha came up and took Vida from him, placing her on the table in her lounge and sniffing her for need of a changed diaper.

“No, thanks we are good.” Stefan pushed Damon gently away from his neck and Damon took a step back and blushed.

“So…this is it?” Nathan asked, looking to them both.

“Unless you want to come with us.” Stefan offered, noticing the tremor of tension that rolled through Damon as he did so.  
“I…can’t.” Nathan looked to Nisha who was chatting away to Vida and changing her diaper. “I still have things to do here.”

I bet.

Stefan grinned in acknowledgement of Nisha and Nathan gave a small smile.

“You’re welcome anytime. We aren’t that far and our home has so much space…”

“Call before you come.” Damon advised, finally looking at Nathan and Nathan gave a stiff nod.

Stefan frowned a little at the strangeness of their exchange but was interrupted by Nisha coming back to join them with Vida.  
Vida was demanding her toys in her usual fashion and Damon stepped forward and took her from his arms, leaving the lodge unexpectedly and leaving Stefan and Nisha to turn to Nathan.

“Is everything ok with you two?” Nisha asked and Stefan raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah, I just need to get my head around him, you know?” He looked to Stefan, who gave a nod of understanding. “He’s…complicated and I just need a break for a while.”

Stefan swallowed heavily. There was never a normal time in their lives. Life as a vampire was constantly full of complication. Life as a mate was tenfold more complicated.

He grabbed Nathan into a fierce hug and scented his cheek.

I’ll miss you Nate. Look after yourself and the rest of the pack.

I will. You look after my niece and Damon.

I will.

Stefan held him by his shoulders and gave a small smile as Nisha huffed beside him.

“And for those of us who don’t have telepathy?” She crossed her arms and Stefan chuckled and grabbed her in a hug too.

“Call us anytime. We are still a pack, even if we are a weird version of it.” He whispered into her ear as she held him back.

“Every pack has its weirdo’s. Look after my baby girl.” She said, her voice catching as she mentioned Vida and they squeezed each other.

She pulled back, her eyes filled with tears and Nathan put his arm around her, kissing the side of her head. She leant against him and placed her hand on his chest.

“I’ll miss you all so much. You saved us. You were the first proper family we’ve had since…” Stefan trailed off, the lump in his throat growing. “I love you.” He smiled.

Nisha blinked tears down her cheeks and Nathan’s eyes filled too.

“If you need anything…” Nathan said and paused as Stefan moved to him and scented his cheek.

Oh what am I going to do without you both?

Nathan channelled.

Live.

Stefan replied and they parted, Stefan nodding at them in love as he left the lodge.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They were all packed to go, Damon was tying the last of their luggage to the roof of the Camaro when Stefan’s cell wrung. He answered it, balancing Vida’s high chair on one hip as he moved it out to the car.

“Hello?”

“Stefan? It’s Karl.”

“Karl? Hi, how are you both?” Stefan grinned and sat the high chair down for Damon to collect it and stow it somewhere in the nightmare that was their Camaro.

“Great, more than great. We’ve…we’ve got a baby girl.” Karl beamed over the line, tears in his voice and Stefan gripped his cell and smiled in excitement.

“Your heat?” he asked.

“Yes and everything went so well. Monique is…well she’s…”

“I can imagine.” Stefan sighed happily. “No problems with her delivery?”

“No. It was hard getting Florence out but we…I guess we learned from you and Beth how best to do it. We didn’t need Klaus at all.”

“That’s good.” Stefan exhaled relieved. “But, how did she survive without Klaus’s blood or connection?” He frowned.

“I guess she was just a fighter.” Karl chuckled. “We finally have everything we could want from life Stefan. Monique wants to see you.”

“We’re starting our drive to New York tonight. We’ll call you when we get there tomorrow night.”

“We look forward to it.” He said ecstatic and hung up.

Damon finished squashing the high chair into the trunk and turned to him curious.

“Monique and Karl had a cub from their heat. The baby is fine, strong. She didn’t need a connection to Klaus to survive.” He explained and Damon’s eyes widened.

“It’s ok? I mean, they got it out without a witch?”

“Yeah.” Stefan shook his head in wonder and looked down at the cell in his hand as though it were sentient and able to disagree.

Damon slung his arm around Stefan’s middle and pulled him into a wet, passionate kiss.

No more Klaus. No more need for help. Want you Stefan.

Damon channelled hurriedly as he pressed Stefan against the side of the car. Stefan kissed back, overcome with Damon’s passion, but pushed him away by his shoulders and separated them slowly.

Plenty of time to celebrate. Let’s get lady impossible sorted for our journey.

“Just a little while Stefan please? Ian can keep her a little bit longer.” Damon said huskily, licking up Stefan’s neck and making his insides buzz. 

I can’t wait the whole trip to have you. Need you.

He channelled more seductively and Stefan gave in, nodding and allowing Damon to drag him into their empty lodge.

Damon pulled at their clothes, scattering them on the floor as he kissed his mate. The room filled with the scent of roses and Stefan’s entrance began to leak his fluid. Damon pushed him down onto the bed and opened Stefan’s legs wide, plunging his mouth down and into Stefan’s ripe heat.

Stefan gasped and moaned loudly, feeling Damon worshipping him with no bounds. This was going to be quick.

His legs fell open to his sides and Damon tilted his pelvis up further. Stefan panted, watching his manhood flop around on top of his belly as it grew.

Damon pulled himself away from Stefan’s entrance, his vampire face on as he growled and pulled Stefan up and onto his lap. Stefan put his arms around his neck and Damon lifted him and filled him hurriedly. Everything felt hurried, passionate, desperate – perhaps because they were supposed to be leaving now, collecting Vida and leaving this lodge clean, but they didn’t care to worry. They had to join right now and as messily as possible.

They kissed, breathing together into each other’s mouths as Stefan rode him. Damon kept his hands clamped around Stefan’s hips and bottom to guide his movements, their thrusting into each other making obscene slapping and pounding sounds as flesh met flesh.

New life, new life Stefan. Going to have more babies. More babies and no Klaus. Going to fuck you until you can’t stand it!  
Stefan groaned lustily at his channelling and the subsequent images Damon was imagining. Yes, he wanted all of that and now that Karl and Monique had managed to have a child without any other intervention, it seemed more possible that they could have the life they wanted.

Going to put more than one in you at a time. Going to breed you little blood machine…

Damon continued to channel, his thoughts turning the dirtiest they had ever been and Stefan bit down on Damon’s bottom lip fiercely, causing Damon to cry out and fill his inside even before the milking could begin. He held Damon around his back to support him as he slumped and rode him gently, slowly with tenderness.

Damon lay back flat and Stefan cooed at him, stroking over his chest as he continued to chase his own orgasm. Milking Damon right now might not be a good idea as he had clearly had a powerful orgasm already and they did have to share a long drive.  
He removed himself from Damon’s manhood and sat back, pumping himself as Damon closed his eyes and licked his lips. It wouldn’t take long. He pumped himself harder, looking at Damon’s body and imagining the taste of his milk, until he climaxed, pouring himself over Damon’s groin and tracing his fingers there – pushing his semen inside of Damon’s entrance gently.  
Damon rumbled lustily in his throat and watched him.

“I’m never going to get tired of fucking you.” Stefan whispered, smiling as he pumped another amount of semen onto Damon’s happy trail.

“Promises, promises.” Damon grinned, enjoying the tracing of Stefan’s fingers.

“We have to shower now.” Stefan sighed and Damon pouted. “We have to or the car is going to smell funky. It’s a 14-hour drive to NYC.” Stefan reminded and Damon nodded in agreement.

“Fine but when we get to NYC, we build a nest in every room.” Damon bargained.

“Every room fit for adults.” Stefan chuckled and Damon grinned in agreement.

“So many rooms to christen.”

“So many new adventures.” Stefan added, feeling ready to go, elated at their new start.

“Klaus-free adventures little blood machine.”

“Yeah. We don’t need him anymore.” Stefan agreed, standing up out of the bed and holding his hand out to Damon.

Damon took it and was dragged to the shower. They’d freshen up, pick up lady impossible and go on their way, finally able to say that they understood what they were now. They could handle whatever came their way and it ultimately made them stronger.


End file.
